Real estate ruled in 2007. A look at the potential target sectors for 2008
After getting a brief idea about ‘what lies beneath’
and ‘what’s on surface’ the time has come to get a hang of ‘what lies ahead’. Amidst the rollicking PE investments that are sweeping various sectors of the Indian economy, one truth stands out for sure – the ‘sunrises’ of today might be the ‘twilights’ of tomorrow! And as we say this, we dare to add the natural truth that most definitely, some new sector(s) will lead the lap in the race to woo investors. Here’s a primer…
Statistics reveal that the year 2007 was ruled by sectors like real estate and telecom that counted first when it came to the PE favourites category. And this comes as a no surprise as it fell quite in line with the promises that these two sectors held. Therefore, investments in companies like GMR Infrastructure and Bharti Airtel were some of the noteworthy deals in these above mentioned sectors. In terms of percentage value share for the year 2007, sectors like real estate & infrastructure management led the pack, attracting 36% of the net investment share. It was followed by others like Telecom, Banking & Financial services, Media, Entertainment & Publishing and IT & ITeS, which garnered 18%, 17%, 5% and 4% of the total pie respectively. And now talking about what’s bound to happen in the future, let’s consider the following figures. According to a PE firm, SMC, “There are 366 firms claiming to be operating in India and another 69 that are raising capital with plans to be operating soon. Approximately, over 400 funds are active or about to be active in Indian markets. In total, they seem to be sitting on $48 billion to be invested between now and December 10, 2008.” What this clearly proves is that there is no dearth of money flowing into India through the PE route. However, which are the target sectors for these deeppocketed sharpshooters is still a critical and cloudy question to ponder over.
Sudhir Gupta of Planman Financial feels that, “Sectors like education, especially e-education, will rake in big PE money in the coming future. Then there are also other sectors like healthcare, which will also attract huge PE investments.” Well, believe it or not, from career counseling to preparatory tutorials to vocational training companies, education is one of the sectors, which is enticing PE firms big time. 2007 was a great year for healthcare and it seems it will of course remain in vogue. The year saw a whopping $400 million being poured into this sector, and this fad is still far from becoming history. Currently pegged at $34 billion, the healthcare sector is expected to grow to a whopping $40 billion by 2010. “We are certainly looking at buyout opportunities in the domestic pharmaceutical space this year,” opines Sanjiv Kaul, Managing Director, Chryscapital Infrastructure. Sure enough, a look at the figures would prove that the pharma industry has also been a roaring success amongst the money-laden PE firms.
After getting a brief idea about ‘what lies beneath’
and ‘what’s on surface’ the time has come to get a hang of ‘what lies ahead’. Amidst the rollicking PE investments that are sweeping various sectors of the Indian economy, one truth stands out for sure – the ‘sunrises’ of today might be the ‘twilights’ of tomorrow! And as we say this, we dare to add the natural truth that most definitely, some new sector(s) will lead the lap in the race to woo investors. Here’s a primer…Statistics reveal that the year 2007 was ruled by sectors like real estate and telecom that counted first when it came to the PE favourites category. And this comes as a no surprise as it fell quite in line with the promises that these two sectors held. Therefore, investments in companies like GMR Infrastructure and Bharti Airtel were some of the noteworthy deals in these above mentioned sectors. In terms of percentage value share for the year 2007, sectors like real estate & infrastructure management led the pack, attracting 36% of the net investment share. It was followed by others like Telecom, Banking & Financial services, Media, Entertainment & Publishing and IT & ITeS, which garnered 18%, 17%, 5% and 4% of the total pie respectively. And now talking about what’s bound to happen in the future, let’s consider the following figures. According to a PE firm, SMC, “There are 366 firms claiming to be operating in India and another 69 that are raising capital with plans to be operating soon. Approximately, over 400 funds are active or about to be active in Indian markets. In total, they seem to be sitting on $48 billion to be invested between now and December 10, 2008.” What this clearly proves is that there is no dearth of money flowing into India through the PE route. However, which are the target sectors for these deeppocketed sharpshooters is still a critical and cloudy question to ponder over.
Sudhir Gupta of Planman Financial feels that, “Sectors like education, especially e-education, will rake in big PE money in the coming future. Then there are also other sectors like healthcare, which will also attract huge PE investments.” Well, believe it or not, from career counseling to preparatory tutorials to vocational training companies, education is one of the sectors, which is enticing PE firms big time. 2007 was a great year for healthcare and it seems it will of course remain in vogue. The year saw a whopping $400 million being poured into this sector, and this fad is still far from becoming history. Currently pegged at $34 billion, the healthcare sector is expected to grow to a whopping $40 billion by 2010. “We are certainly looking at buyout opportunities in the domestic pharmaceutical space this year,” opines Sanjiv Kaul, Managing Director, Chryscapital Infrastructure. Sure enough, a look at the figures would prove that the pharma industry has also been a roaring success amongst the money-laden PE firms.
Intelenet deal to 4Ps B&M: “We wanted to retain our third party BPO focus and wanted to grow into a global brand. From the outset, we were very clear about what we were looking for in a potential partner. This deal with Blackstone will enable us to continue to grow as a third party BPO service provider and will also help our multi-pronged growth strategy. The association with Blackstone is a mutually beneficial one where Blackstone leverages Intelenet’s delivery capabilities for all its portfolio companies. Intelenet aims to optimally leverage Blackstone’s financial backing to improve and expand its operations. These acquisitions will enable Intelenet to expand its delivery footprint from solely offshore centres, to an on-shore and near-shore capability based out of the US and Latin America. Blackstone is lending its global brand and ready access to its investee portfolio.”
for more vehicles. We are developing something in our labs and will be launching another car in the Spark segment some time soon.” Clearly this time, GM is leaving no room for mistakes. It is now very clear that GM has chosen the Chevrolet brand as the platform for its future growth. Also all new products introduced will be un der the brand name Chevrolet. Explains Slym, “We added Spark, U-VA, Optra Magnum and Captiva to the Chevrolet brand as it is important to clarify to the customers what the GM brand stands for in India.” As branding holds such relevance, the company is “now banking on brand enhancement and building consumer awareness.” In order to reach these ends effectively, GM is now ready to bring in its premium brands into Indian terrain. “I’ll be definitely going beyond the Chevrolet brand. Presently Chevrolet looks after 90% of the market. Now we also have to take care of the remaining 10% of the market,” says Slym.
familiar to those not well versed with western history. But the philosophy this founding father of America and top inventor gave to this world holds fort till date, with his statement, “Nothing is certain, but death and taxes!” As the financial year draws to an end, taxation is one buzzword which is bound to keep us busy for the next two months. Tax planning has already gained momentum; more so as March is synonymous with taxation. Salaried tax payers, like Sasawata Mukherjee (Geologist, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd), comment, “It is only during the last quarter of the year that I gear up for tax planning and in a hurry I have to depend a lot on the agents advice.” It is no wonder that financial products are marketed more during this period. Be it mutual funds (the primary one being the Equity Linked Saving Schemes – ELSS) or insurance policies (Unit Linked Insurance Plans – ULIPs and endowment plans are the major pitch), both eye on capturing a significant share of an individual’s tax-planning kitty, mainly because investments up to Rs.100,000 are eligible for deduction from one’s gross total income under Section 80 C of the Income Tax Act.
technologies like virtualisation, green tech and printing solutions, this time, IBM is gearing up to help the employees collaborate in globally integrate enterprise. With globalisation being the buzzword, multinationals are fighting hard to maintain their connection with geographically dispersed workforce. And to implement its collaboration efforts, IBM has initiated its development platform based on Web2.0 technologies. This development platform, called www.jazz.net, is an commercial community, which helps companies collaborate on the development of Jazz-based technologies.
in drastically transforming the group. Every innovation that you bring about in terms of people process will have a consequential lift on the employee’s behaviour, productivity, et al. We look at from the employee’s prospective as to what they want, and this included well hiring, development, employee engagement, compensating them well, paying attention to the needs of the employees and taking care of the employees in every manner. So it has to be an array of things that leads to the making of a good working place.
in India; its USP being the wide array of products available under one roof at amazingly low prices. Till date, it has worked remarkably well for them. But, with inflation and cost of real estate rising, it may well get difficult for Big Bazaar to play on the price front. In that case, an effective supply chain and increased focus on customer care will help Big Bazaar to grow and survive in the long run.
across media a few months ago, the (ad) World in particular and howling mobs in general gasped at this startling move and went into a tizzy over King Khan’s encore (fans of the superstar will undoubtedly remember the storm-in-a-bathtub he created with his glamorous splash in a LUX ad a couple of years ago) in determinedly re-defining the very spirit of the term, Metrosexual!
of too much media attention. Keeping itself aloof from the limelight in the past, it has suddenly created ripples in the IT industry through its tremendous global reach. Backed by its ability to adapt to the dynamic market situation, Patni Computer Systems Ltd. (PCL) has always let its work speak for itself.
as UTI was one of the most preferred and established brands in the Indian financial milieu. Seemingly out of compulsion, but still the name AXIS promises to deliver international compatibility and added youthfulness to the brand. It all started off with twins bombarding our television screens to drill the fact into the mind of the consumers that the two are really one and the same.