Scuttlebutt

September 01, 2020
4

Is Real Estate the next Pharma?

Posted by | Business Models, Indian Markets, Industries, Scuttlebutt | No Comments

A few years ago I had made a thematic presentation ‘India’s Consolidation Wave’ at Flame Investment Lab, Pune. The basic idea was to demonstrate using actual data from multiple industries that how some of the better-run companies were consistently growing faster than the industry and hence winning market share from their smaller/weaker/inefficient counterparts. At that time, I highlighted some of the key enablers supporting this trend – brand, distribution, and economies of scale. Later when Demonetization happened in 2016 and GST got rolled out in 2017, the ‘Unorganized to Organized’ became a hot theme and many investors expected unorganized (smaller firms) to shut overnight while organized guys (listed companies) to grow multi-fold. Naturally, these investors and analysts were bound to get disappointed. While I also mentioned GST, in my presentation, as an …

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February 02, 2019
2

Here’s what a customer visit to a Tanishq outlet tells you — that its financial statements won’t

Posted by | Business Models, Industries, Scuttlebutt, Stocks | No Comments

My February’19 Column Written For Moneycontrol The beauty about being in investing profession is that your mind is always curious and observing even when you aren’t ‘working’. Any occasion — a family holiday, house renovation or wedding — can effortlessly translate into scuttlebutt (primary research) where you experience so many products and services as a consumer, get to interact with dealers and also get to observe your family and other consumers engaging with those products and brands. I had one such wonderful experience recently. There was a wedding in my family and like all Indian weddings, it meant shopping jewellery for the couple, relatives, gifting, etc. My family and relatives have been traditionally dealing with two jewellers in our neighborhood who belong to same community (Sindhi) – one of them …

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April 26, 2018
7

[Video] Presentation on Wind Energy Revival & Proxies for Investors

Posted by | Industries, Investing Framework, Scuttlebutt, Stocks | No Comments

Presentation by Jatin Khemani, Founder & CEO, Stalwart Advisors on Wind Energy Revival & Proxies Presentation (Video): Notes to Video: 00:00 Introduction 00:40 Wind Energy – Journey 01:20 FY18 Regime Change 05:30 Old Regime Vs New 09:15 Coal Vs Solar Vs Wind 10:00 Visibility for FY19 12:50 India’s Energy Target 2022 14:20 Key Concerns 18:40 Q4FY18 Turning Point? 19:30 Proxies for Investors 20:58 Disclosures Presentation (Slides): For any queries or feedback, please write to us at support@stalwartvalue.com

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January 14, 2018
6

[Video] Thematic Research on Pollution & Actionable Investment Ideas

Posted by | Industries, Investor Meetup, Scuttlebutt, Stocks | No Comments

Presentation made by Jatin Khemani, Founder of Stalwart Advisors, during a conference organized by ‘Strictly Invest’ a group of around 150 passionate investors on 13th January 2018 in Mumbai’s Orchid Hotel. Presentation (Video): Notes to Video: 00:00 Introduction 01:00 Sneak peek in 2030 04:20 Pollution – A silent killer 05:40 Environmental Kuznets Curve 07:40 Sources of Air Pollution 09:20 New Emission Norms for India’s Thermal Power 11:00 Size of the Opportunity 12:45 List of companies to benefit 13:30 Top bet – GE Power India 15:20 Risk & Concerns 17:30 Other Proxies – Respirators & Masks 19:15 Other Proxies – Air Purifiers 20:15 Other Proxies – Pharma & Healthcare 20:40 Plants at Rescue 26:00 Disclaimers Presentation (Slides): FREE Access to research report on GE Power India & Scuttlebutt Note on Power …

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October 20, 2017
9

How we caught & dropped a 5-bagger – Story of AGL

Posted by | Investing Framework, Scuttlebutt, Stocks | 3 Comments

Ceramic Tiles is one space which we have been tracking for many years now. In the past, we have misjudged the potential of branded players and missed some multi-baggers like Kajaria Ceramics and Somany. (blog post from 2013) During 2015, we studied a company called ‘Asian Granito’. With Rs 850 Cr. in annual sales AGL is the 4th largest in India’s Rs 24,000 Cr. ceramic tile industry. It was available at Rs 160 a share and a market cap of Rs 360 Cr. i.e. 0.45 times sales vs. 2-3x for Kajaria and Somany. Despite throwaway valuations, we gave it a pass owing to some concerns on the business and management quality. We again looked at it when we learned Mr. Tapan Jena, a professional with 27+ years of experience in …

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May 16, 2017
4

Why we bought Garware-Wall Ropes?

Posted by | Business Models, Investing Framework, Scuttlebutt, Stocks | 3 Comments

“Invest in businesses that buy commodities and sell brands” is a powerful idea for long-term investing propagated by Warren Buffet. This lends business the ability to pass on higher raw material cost without losing unit volumes and retain some benefits in times of softer raw material prices. (a.k.a. pricing power) As per Prof. Sanjay Bakshi, an attractive hunting ground for mis-priced companies is often where Mr. Market is valuing some businesses as commodity, perhaps because they belong to sectors which are labeled “commodity” for example textiles, whereas in reality some of these might have carved out a niche for themselves enjoying a strong pricing power (think Ambika Cotton) In 2015 we got lucky when we spotted both these elements to be present in a business called ‘Garware-Wall Ropes’, a Pune based technical textile giant. …

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June 05, 2016
24

What makes Wonderla Holidays an amazing business?

Posted by | Business Models, Scuttlebutt, Stocks | 3 Comments

What is the idea of a full-day outing/picnic for an average Indian middle class family? Think about it, what are the entertainment options available for a family even in Metro cities on weekends or when you have some relatives visiting you from outstation? I bet the first thing that would come to your mind would be- visiting a mall, watching a movie and then having a nice meal at the food court. That sounds good and that is precisely what everybody around seems to be doing. The only issue there could be lack of decent content which you can watch with your family. Other than that, what else comes to your mind? Think about full-day enterntainment options for an average Indian family. Frankly not many exciting options exist that are …

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May 07, 2016
7

What makes Thyrocare a great business?

Posted by | Food for thought, Scuttlebutt | 9 Comments

What makes Thyrocare a great business? I probably first got to know about Thyrocare Technologies Limited (a company into Healthcare Diagnostic) through a 2010 ET article titled ‘PE firm buys 30% in Thryocare as comapany seeks to tap radiology segment‘ and later in 2012 when Thyrocare had second round of funding  ‘Norwest Venture Partners invests Rs 120 cr in Thyrocare‘ As I read more about the company I found some very interesting pointers: First Indian laboratory to have an IT enabled, 24×7, fully automated diagnostic laboratory Set up covering over 2,00,000 sq. ft. floor space (a centralized laboratory) that ensures error free processing of over 40,000 specimens and over 2,00,000 Clinical Chemistry investigations per night. (mind-boggling numbers..isn’t it?) The unmatched speed factor is achieved through a combination of air-cargo logistics and IT enabled, …

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December 12, 2014
14

Decoding Business Model of Meru Cabs

Posted by | Business Models, Food for thought, Scuttlebutt | 10 Comments

Since a long time, I have been a loyal customer of Meru Cabs whether I am in Dehi, Mumbai or Bangalore. Being a value investor and somebody who strongly practices scuttlebutt, I generally find it hard to resist interacting with the driver. In fact most of these guys turn out to be pretty interesting and knowledgeable. Over these years, I generally found that barring the usual small complaints every employee has, Meru drivers have largely been happy with the company on all crucial parameters like getting consistent bookings, monthly earnings and overall experience. I was in Mumbai recently when I booked a Meru from Thane to the airport using their android mobile application. (If you haven’t tried the app yet, please have a look. It is amazing as it shows you cabs around you …

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