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Upcoming IPO: Is Monte Carlo going to be Lovable?

Woolen and cotton garments manufacturer  Monte Carlo Fashions Ltd (MCFL) is entering the capital market with its initial public offering of nearly 54.33 lakh equity shares of Rs 10 each in price band of Rs 630 to Rs 645 per share. In the price band, the issue will lead to Rs 342 crore -350 crore being mobilized. The issue will constitute 25% of the post-issue paid up capital. The issue will open on 3 December 2014 and will close on 5 December 2014. Although the IPO has not been graded by any credit rating agency, that’s no reason for investors to look away from this IPO. MCFL is backed by private equity firm Samara Capital which invested Rs 175 crore in the company in tranches nearly two years ago. This investment gave Samara Capital a stake of 18.5% in the company valued at Rs 945 crore. With the listing, the valuation is expected to go up to Rs 1,400 crore, translating into a cool 48% gain over two years. Still, Samara Capital would retain 11% stake in Monte Carlo after part e
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Just how valuable BSE is? ...USD1 billion it says

Three cheers to Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) which is planning to come up with an IPO next year. The exchange has selected 14 banks including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, Barclays Capital, and UBS for its IPO planned during the first-half of 2013. This is certainly not the first bourse to get listed but it is also not commonplace to find exchanges seeking public money. To be fair, public money comes with a lot of strings attached including increased public scrutiny and higher pressure to maintain corporate governance. Now this is arguably a difficult task in this line of business, it is therefore intriguing what prompted BSE to get a public listing. The exchange is not short of cash for sure. Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) is already listed and has a market capitalization of nearly INR78.81 billion (USD1.44 billion). Incidentally, BSE is also seeking a valuation in excess of USD1 billion, according to chief executive Ashishkumar Chauhan. Arms of Indian banks Kotak Mahi
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Indian government cuts import duty on rubber to 7.5%

The Indian government has reduced the import duty on natural rubber to 7.5% from 20%, reports the Economic Times.  The duty cut will be implemented for shipments up to 40,000 tonnes till 31 March 2011, to boost domestic supply and put a check on rocketing rubber prices that touched record INR207 (US$4.5, 27 December 2010) per kg. It has also been reported that the natural rubber import beyond 31 March 2010 will attract a duty of 20% or INR20 (US$0.4) per kg, whichever is lower. “The government has addressed the long-standing request of the industry. This should have happened long back when prices in domestic market were higher than international market,” said Rajiv Budhraja, director general of New-Delhi (India)-based Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association. The Indian tire industry had been seeking a cut in the 20% customs duty on natural rubber, which is double that for tire imports. Looking at the price position, rubber and availability of rubber and the increased demand for
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Apple, Google and Buffett

What is similar between Apple, Google and Buffett? Nothing at the first glance, dig a bit deeper and one comes across multibagger personalities. All of them are in different businesses rarely encountering others as competitors but I can’t help myself imagining the ever upwards sales and profit charts for these companies (Berkshire Hathaway in case of Buffett). All three of them share some common traits. Core business Apple and Google excelled in their initial businesses of computer hardware and internet search. None of them were the first entrants (a number of mainframe makers were present when Apple started) but harnessed the potential of being ‘not so late’ entrants. Buffett, on his part can easily find a place in the list of all time great investors on the basis of his early investment in Coke and Gillette. It was the firm belief in the value investing ideals that he refused to invest in any of the dot coms. Needless to say, Buffett had the last laugh. Diversification Ap
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Startup Valuations: Too much, too early?

Corporate valuations of the cleantech firms have always been an issue of fervent debate. On one hand, a set of market participants advocates usage of traditional valuation methods (discounted cash flow, comparable company analysis etc.) to arrive at a figure, while another school of thought propagates the consideration of intangible variables like the impact of new technology on common masses and the quantum change the technology promises to bring in daily life of an average user. Automotive battery and electric vehicle manufacturers are no exceptions with a number of low sales, concept stage companies receiving high valuations. Here are a few examples. A123Systems Inc. The company was incubated in MIT in 2001. After initial rounds of funding and dropping the original idea of self-organizing batteries, A123 scored big with a contract to supply batteries to Black & Decker power tools in 2005. The company has raised around US$300m in as much as six rounds of funding excluding the com
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Alternative Propulsion Systems: ETV Motors gets US$12m in initial round of funding

Alternative energy storage and powertrain investments have been on rise lately. Apart from many venture capitalists taking a U-turn on their investment policies ( Vinod Khosla being the prominent one), encashing the old industrial investments and dedicating significant portion of their corpus for clean technology (Former president candidate Al Gore's Generation Investment Management Fund et al). After the recently completed investments of Berkshire Hathaway in BYD and GE ’s investment in A123 (battery manufacturer) and Think Global (makers of TH!NK City electric vehicle), an Israeli company has raised US$12m in Series A funding for the development of electric vehicle propulsion technology. Quercus Trust and 21Ventures LLC jointly invested in ETV Motors . The company is developing micro-turbine technology , another possible ‘game changer’ in plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) market. ETV is contelplating the vehicle propulsion system as a combination of high voltage lithium
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Lead Carbon: Rising upto the challange

Automotive battery market is heating up. Last week, the state of Michigan approved investments by four battery producers amounting to US$1.7 billion . Lithium-ion battery technology, which is often touted as the most mature technology for the automotive use dominated the investment space in the state. However, the week also witnessed a rather unusual deal between battery major Exide Technologies and relatively unknown Axion Power International . Axion is a small company focusing on Lead Carbon battery technology. The company is working on the similar lines as Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in developing the activated carbon battery. Axion Power is taking a slightly different approach with its battery technology replacing the negative electrode with microporous activated carbon. The company is confident that by doing so it will be able to overcome major drawbacks of lead acid batteries namely high weight and low energy density. Whil
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