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Asian Voice - Saturday 17th December 2011
TiE Awards UK 2011 honours business talent
Dear Financial Voice Reader, ‘But is this a good time for a novice to invest in the market’ asked a friend on Facebook. A brilliant question. Here are 7 reasons why the answer is yes, and remember, I am not trying to sell you a fund, so am not biased. Reason 1: Even experts don’t know the best time to invest. Trying to pick the best time to invest is seductive but notoriously difficult. Want to know how bad experts are? Just look at their returns on any league table. They often don’t beat bank accounts. Sometimes they don’t beat the mattress. That means a novice can rely on themselves without too much of a disadvantage. Reason 2: You don’t have to buy rubbish: Yes at the time of writing in the last 6 months, Netflix and Research in Motion (Blackberry), Bank of America, are down over 50%. And these are big brands. But that is the point. We can be very selective, choose carefully and buy and hold. Of course someone has to teach us how to do that. But the point is, just because you hear of stock crashes, does not mean you ever needed to have bought them. With some careful stock picking you could have avoided the stinkers. Still worried? Try an index tracker – see below. Reason 3: All stocks don’t drop in bad markets: Sure for a while when markets plummet everything stinks. But cream rises over time. We have to ensure we are looking at cream. To do this we use some time criteria. That way we sleep like babies in the difficult times knowing we own quality. Now wouldn’t that be exciting? Reason 4: It is easier than ever for a novice to toe-dip: With the internet, brokerage costs are so low, that even if you start with as little as 500 euros, dollars, pounds – it does not eat too large into your investment. So you can start small. What’s the rush? No one is switching off the market. But this is an important point. Private investors lose money when they are in a rush to make a lot. Reason 5: Searching for good stocks using simple criteria is easier than ever: You want a large company that is growing its sales every year for the past three years and its valuation is one of the lowest of all companies on the stock market and it pays dividends at a rate beating bank accounts. That is just an example. It used to take hours to get this kind of data. Now you can do it in seconds. For instance see w w w . s h a r e s c o p e . c o . u k / a l p e s h orhttp://www.google.com/finance/stockscreener Reason 6: When is a good time? Surely you don’t think a good time is when a market has just rallied? Then people would argue, ‘is this a good time?’ or what about after it has rallied and rallied and is ready to burst. That is when everyone gets in. That is a called a top. So what are you left with. Logically, you say when it is falling. Or as Warren Buffett put it, buy when others are afraid and sell when they are greedy. Well people are definitely afraid now. Reason 7: Products mean instant simple diversification: Products such as exchange traded funds, which track indices, mean you can follow 500 stocks by owning just one. These are relatively cheap to buy and own. So there you have it.
Payday lenders target low-income borrowers
Short term lenders who charge up to 5,000 per cent interest per year are targeting low-income UK borrowers abandoned by high street banks. Such socalled payday lenders, which also include homegrown companies, have been attracted by Britain’s relatively unchecked market. The volume of business has more than tripled in four years to about £2 billion, according to one consumer group’s estimate. “There are now millions of Britons who can’t make ends meet as prices rise and unemployment bites and a lack of regulation means they’re being targeted by legal loan
sharks,” Stella Creasy, a Labour MP, said. An increasingly hostile US political and regulatory background has prompted many payday lenders to cross the Atlantic and move into some of Britain’s most deprived areas. Typically providing loans of up to £400 for a period of two to four weeks, these lenders target borrowers on below-average salaries who have been unable to access bank credit since the financial crisis. David Fisher, director of consumer credit, said. “Our focus is on protecting all consumers, including the vulnerable, from businesses behaving unscrupulously.”
The Indus Entrepreneurs TiE Annual Awards UK 2011 honoured the best of entrepreneurship in Central London on 6 Dec 2011. It was attended by well-known businessmen from UK and also international business community. Mr Anil Agarwal, Chairman and Founder of Vedanta Resources, was the chief guest and he inaugurated the event. Dr Sanjeev Ahuja, President, TiE UK, while addressing the audience said: “The TiE UK Awards are about you: the leaders, the significant achievers, and remarkable role models; the entrepreneurs and those who broke the mould; others who mentored, and especially those who have devoted themselves to their professions and passions alike.” UK’s top business and political stalwarts including former Dragons Den judge and serial entrepreneur James Caan, Lord Karan Bilimoria, Life Peer, Founder and Chairman of Cobra Beer, Founder of New Look Tom Singh, and Baroness Sandip Verma of Leicester were all present in the event. Demonstrating the influence of its esteemed guest-list, combined wealth of attendees touched £6 billion. The platform that TiE UK provides for both established and young enterprising individuals, Dr Ahuja noted: “While debate will continue for some years yet on how best to rescue battered economies, rev up job mar-
Dr Sanjeev Ahuja with Anil Agarwal
kets, and open up stifled liquidity around the World, the spotlight is on nonprofit organisations, philanthropists among you, and private foundations to spur economic growth over what is likely to be a long recovery period.” Emphasising the importance of focusing on the youth, he further pointed out that “ …fostering entrepreneurship is about giving hope to those college graduates; those young men and women who we asked to reach for the stars and then, curtailed their access to the skies.” With nearly 620,000 majority womenowned businesses in the UK, which are expected to rise to over 1,000,000 in the next 10 years, member of the House of Lords Baroness Sandip Verma highlighted the increasing number of women launching their own businesses. Nick O’Donohoe, CEO of Big Society Capital spoke on the subject of entrepreneurship and social enterprise and how both share a symbiotic relationship.
The US-based Kauffman Foundation has chosen Liverpool to host the prestigious week-long Global Entrepreneurship Congress in 2012 with over 500 people from more than 100 countries. Mike Parker CBE, Chairman of Liverpool Vision, explained its significance and aim to “light the candles of entrepreneurship” for the city region’s young people. During question answer session chief guest Anil Agarwal shared how Vedanta came to be, the value of education in modern society, his personal drive and social enterprise. During the event four prestigious awards were presented to: Internet entrepreneur and cofounder of CMG Partners and Arbor Ventures Chris Mathias, who was awarded for Most Impactful Contribution to Early Stage Business by Lord Karan Bilimoria; Unltd, a leading charity supporting social entrepreneurs, was awarded the Most Innovative Social Enterprise Award by Nick
Barclays India freezes retail business Barclays India, which has been rejigging its operations, said it was freezing the retail business in India, a move that comes after it sold nearly half of its credit card business to StanChart India. "As part of our decision to consolidate and build a sustained profitable Indian business based on our competitive strengths globally, we have decided to not book new retail loans here. "However, we will continue to maintain our deposit business, while focusing on wealth management, large corporates
and investment banking services. All the existing loans will, of course, continue as normal," Barclays India spokesperson said. A few days back, StanChart India had said that it bought 160,000 of
the 200,000 standard credit card portfolio of Barclays for an undisclosed sum. But the bank said it bought cards at a huge discount to the book value of Rs 1.75 billione. Barclays, which did not confirm the
deal officially, has around 300,000 customers under its credit card business. The plan to quit the retail business will see at least 150 people getting the pink slip, according to a Barclays insider. This comes four months after Barclays, which is fighting to revive profitability, sacked 50 people following its decision to merge the sales team of its commercial and investment banking units. The latest job cuts will represent about 17% of the bank's remaining 850 employees in India, said the source.
O’Donohoe, CEO of Big Society Capital; Dr Diwan Rahul Nanda, CEO and Global Chairman of TOPSGRUP Securities, was presented with the Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year Award by James Caan; Founder and Chairman of the annual Asian Women of Achievement Awards and well-known food guru Pinky Lilani was presented the award for Woman Entrepreneur of the Year by Baroness Sandip Verma. TiE UK founders Nish Kotecha and Apurv Bagri were recognized for their extraordinary contribution to TiE UK and presented by Dr Sanjeev Ahuja and Sunil Mohindra of TiE UK North. The event was sponsored by DVK Group, a private equity firm and RationalFX, one of the world’s fastest growing independent foreign exchange companies. TiE UK is the UK Chapter of TiE, the world’s largest non-profit organisation that is singularly focused on the advancement of entrepreneurship as a unique vehicle for the creation of sustainable normative wealth. Over the last 3 years, 200 entrepreneurs at various stages and across industry sectors have been mentored by TiE UK. Its management board comprises Dr Sanjeev Ahuja (President), Neil Basu, Mihir Kapadia, Tarun Ghulati, Atul Bajpai, Vijay Goel, Rajesh Agarwal, and representatives from TiE UK North.
Cyrus Mistry inducted into Tata Industries board
A week after being appointed deputy chairman of Tata Sons, the apex holding company of the $83-billion Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry has been inducted into the board of Tata Industries, the second biggest holding company for the group. Set up in 1945, the privately held Tata Industries mainly promotes the group's entry into new ventures. For instance, it promoted Tata Teleservices, the group's flagship firm in the telecommunications space, and Taco, in the auto components segment.
Tata Motors pips RIL & Infosys, top Indian company for R&D Automobile giant Tata Motors has pipped giants like Reliance Industries and Infosys to become India's top-ranked company for research and development (R&D), as per a list compiled by the European Commission. In its annual R&D Scorecard of the companies from across the world, the European Union's executive body European Commission (EC) has ranked Tata Motors at the top among the 18 Indian companies on its list, com-
piled on the basis for investment towards R&D and business innovation initiatives. Among Indian firms, Tata Motors is followed by IT firms Prithvi Information Solutions and Polaris Software, state-run BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals) and another auto giant Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) in the top-five. IT giant Infosys is placed at 10th position among the Indian firms, followed by Mukesh
Ambani-led retail-to-energy titan Reliance Industries (RIL) at 11th position. Pharma giant Dr Reddy's Laboratories is at 8th, while the country's most valued PSU and oil major ONGC is at 17th. Other Indian firms on the list include Kpit Cummins Info (6th among companies from India), Zylog Systems (7th), Lupin (9th), Core Projects & Technologies (12th), Bharat Electronics (13th), Ashok Leyland (14th), Cipla (15th), Sun
Pharmaceutical Industries (16th) and FCS Software Solutions (18th). The global list is topped by Swiss pharma giant Roche, followed by American drug maker Pfizer, software giant Microsoft, Japanese auto giant Toyota and US-based pharma major Merck in the top-five positions. No Indian firms have managed to find a place in the top-200 list and the top-ranked company from the country, Tata Motors, is placed at 264th position.