Investment Insights
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
December 2021
50x P/E!1 70x P/E! 100x P/E! Valuations that were outrageous just a few years ago are commonly bandied about by most of the investment community these days. But, ask any respected business owner and they would shake their head in disbelief. The difference in perspective is critical.
1 Price to earnings
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
November 2021
We have written about the spate of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in India and our reasons for staying away from them, for the most part. This time, we want to talk about why new listings are important to keep the market vibrant and to keep the entrepreneurial spirit in the country alive.
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
October 2021
Our investment philosophy is to back owners and managers with whom we feel strongly aligned. These owners typically have track records of treating all stakeholders fairly, in both good and bad times. They are ambitious in growing their business, but also risk-aware in their pursuit of growth.
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
September 2021
As the saying goes, “There are two kinds of forecasters: those who don't know, and those who don't know they don't know.” Recently, we have seen hordes of the latter kind, garbed as analysts, Unicorn founders, freshly-minted CEOs and so-called “experts”, as they engage in modern-day snake oil salesmanship, which is what seems to pass for Fundamental Equity Research these days.
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
August 2021
As with global automotive manufacturers, several Indian automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) including Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Tata Motors and Eicher Motors have recently announced that the shortage of semiconductor supply has impacted their production schedules. This has added to the persistent challenges faced by the industry over the last few years.
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
July 2021
Year to date, 34 companies have listed on the Indian exchanges raising a total of USD7.2 billion1, a figure which has been surpassed in India only twice before in the last 12 years on an annual basis. In our Monthly Manager Views in April 2021, we spoke about the initial public offering (IPO) rush that we had begun seeing in India early this year. Unsurprisingly, we have seen this frenzy continue, similar to what has been observed in many global markets.
1 Source: NSE Prime Database, Kotak Securities; as of 10th August 2021.
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
June 2021
At a team discussion last month to track management and board changes across our investment universe, a notification on the stock exchanges piqued our interest. Mr Aditya Puri, who had only recently retired as the CEO of HDFC Bank, had joined the board of a small, unlisted pharmaceutical company, Stelis Biopharma.
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
May 2021
As bottom-up investors, the FSSA team carry out well over 1,500 meetings each year to assess company managements’ capabilities and the underlying strength of the franchises they run. These Monthly Manager Views are based on the team’s discussions with company management and the in-depth analysis that follows.
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
April 2021
As bottom-up investors, the FSSA team carry out well over 1,500 meetings each year to assess company managements’ capabilities and the underlying strength of the franchises they run. These Monthly Manager Views are based on the team’s discussions with company management and the in-depth analysis that follows.
FSSA Monthly Manager Views – India
March 2021
As bottom-up investors, the FSSA team carry out well over 1,500 meetings each year to assess company managements’ capabilities and the underlying strength of the franchises they run. These Monthly Manager Views are based on the team’s discussions with company management and the in-depth analysis that follows.
FSSA Investment Managers - India Equities Update
February 2020
The attributes we like in a company are a strong management team, an effective board, strong alignment with its majority owners and management, a conservative and introspective culture, a franchise which has pricing power and generates superior returns on capital employed, and the potential to become a bigger business over time.
FSSA Investment Managers - India Equities Update
May 2019
A worried client asked us recently, “Will Mr Modi be re-elected, or won’t he? How will the ongoing elections impact the investment case for Indian companies?” We don’t know whether Mr Modi will be re-elected. But we strongly believe that the results of the election will have little bearing on the long-term investment case for Indian equities.
FSSA Investment Managers - India Equities Update
July 2018
Over the last few years, valuations have generally become expensive in our universe of quality companies. Valuations reaching these levels remind me of the mistakes I made running into the 2008 crash.
FSSA Investment Managers - India Equities Update
October 2017
Household savings in India has always been a big number (~US$500 billion) and only a small part of it was in financial instruments, let alone equities. The demonetization exercise in November 2016 encouraged the shift of household savings into financial assets.
FSSA Investment Managers - India Equities Update
September 2016
In previous updates, we discussed the impact of generational changes amongst the owners of our holdings. We continue to monitor such developments very closely and, encouragingly, have encountered a number of positive changes in some of the companies that we have been watching. In this latest update on India, we highlight a few companies that we have taken stakes in as a result.
FSSA Investment Managers - India Equities Update
February 2016
Imperfect companies in India - we find faults in our portfolio holdings and explain why we still consider them to be good investments.