Thought of the Day:
“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.”
Aldous Huxley
Did you know?
The first man to survive going over Niagara Falls later died by slipping on an orange peel.
India:
International:
“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.”
Aldous Huxley
Did you know?
The first man to survive going over Niagara Falls later died by slipping on an orange peel.
India:
- E-commerce cos hail Narendra Modi for advocating tech push in retail: Prominent players in the-commerce space have welcomed BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's stance for pushing for the use of technology in retail. CEO of Smile Group Harish Bahl said: "We have been appealing to the government to create the right policies for growth of the E-commerce industry, which will enable access to foreign capital and allow us to source at scale from small and medium businesses from across the country.""While we still await some decision from the current government, we are hopeful and very happy to Modi articulate our views on the subject and thankful for his support". Modi made a strong pitch here today for usage of technology to boost commercial activities in the country and to overcome the fear of global challenges. "Technology will further push the growth of the retail sector and not dislodge it and Modi has put this in the correct perspective. The restriction on the entry of foreign direct investment into the market will limit the potential of the industry in both the short and long terms," CEO of Yebhi.com Manmohan Agarwal said. Over the last few months e-commerce players have been urging the government to allow FDI in the sector to enable the industry to access foreign capital and expertise.
- How Flipkart fighting off cyberattacks?: The website of the country's largest e-commerce company Flipkart is attacked regularly by organized hacker groups trying to exploit any vulnerability. But so far, every attack has been effectively defended. "Right now, there would be a DDoS attack going on. Yesterday and day before, there were DDoS attacks. We come across such attacks twice or thrice in a week. Given the scale of attacks, it's clearly not individuals who are doing it," said Amod Malviya, head of engineering at Flipkart. DDoS is short for distributed denial of services and DDoS attacks involve a multitude of compromised computer systems being used to attack a single target and trying to deny service to users of the targeted system. "It's not easy to find out who is behind it. But what we do very well is to mitigate those attacks," said Malviya. E-commerce portals, banks, credit card and payment gateways frequently come under DDoS and other forms of hacker attacks, either to render the services inaccessible to their customers or to extract valuable information, both of which can result in huge financial losses. About two years ago, security company Websense discovered that travel portal Cleartrip.com was compromised with malicious files uploaded and targeting its advertisements and masquerading as legitimate ads.
- Rural consumers spending more than urban peers: Credit Suisse report: Divergence between rural and urban India continues to widen, with rural population's spending capacity remaining higher than their urban peers in almost all categories of spending, says a report. "Rural consumers are spending more, and penetration gaps between urban and rural consumers for discretionary items such as automobiles, branded goods and even monthly outgo on mobile connection have come down," said Credit Suisse in a report titled 'India consumer survey 2014'. The report further said despite the higher growth in spending in rural areas, the fall in savings rate is more drastic in urban areas, showing the effect of lower income increase and higher inflation on urban consumers. The survey also highlighted that more rural people saw their incomes increase last year and even more expect this trend to continue this year. According to the survey, the declining trend of consumer optimism observed in the last two years shows some signs of improvement and that the declining trend in discretionary consumption seems to be bottoming out. "More people believe this is a good time for making big-ticket purchases, and also expect inflation to decelerate," it said. "There is also a reversal of the down-trading trend in discretionary items we observed in last year's survey-a sign that declining growth in discretionary items may be bottoming out," the report said. However, Credit Suisse believes it is still early to say whether the cycle has turned and things will pick up from here on.
- Cold food chain maker, Bitzer aims to double business in India in next five years: German refrigerant compressor manufacturer Bitzer plans to double business in India in the next five years, tapping into the increasing number of cold food chains and growing demand for green technology. Its 100 per cent Indian subsidiary Bitzer India has a business of around one million Euro (about Rs 8.5 crore) and aims to double it in the next five years with a 20 per cent annual growth rate. "We have a business of around one million euro from India and would like to double it in the next five years. But it also depends on factors such as the valuation of the Indian rupee," said Bitzer Refrigeration Asia Managing Director Rob De Bruyn. He added that currently Bitzer's India sales contribute less than one per cent of its total revenues. Bruyn said the Indian government is promoting setting up cold storages by providing financial subsidy which would increase demand for Bitzer's solutions. Moreover, the entry of big retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Metro, Tesco, Carrefour and others in the country's food retail sector is expected to boost demand, he said. "We see a very high interest in the green products (technology with low consumption) and high efficiency here," he added.
- ‘Designer’ Pay Packages Now Make Waves in the Tech World: Indian IT firms have been trying to scamper up the ‘value chain’ in the past few years, and the resultant increase in focus on verticals such as product design and emerging technologies like mobile and cloud is sending these tech giants on a talent hunt to the country’s arts and design schools. With salary offers at a premium of well over 40-50% to engineering students, IT firms are making a beeline to recruit students from the likes of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Srishti School of Arts, National Institute of Design (NID) and MIT Institute of Design. Compared to entry-level salaries of tech graduates at . 2.5 lakh to . 3.5 lakh per annum, design students are being picked up by companies such as Microsoft, SAP Labs, TCS, Cognizant, Mindtree, Infosys, Wipro and InMobi, as well as e-commerce players such as Amazon, Myntra, and Flipkart for anywhere between 4 lakh and 18 lakh, depending on the institute. At NID-Ahmedabad’s December 2013 placements, Samsung R&D recruited students at a salary of . 18 lakh, while Cognizant was the top recruiter with 20 students. Other IT recruiters included TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Naukri.com and Adobe among others. The average salaries ranged between 7 lakh and 14 lakh; and the same, say officials at its placement office, was at 4 lakh to 4.5 lakh five years ago. NID-Bangalore, where all students have prior work experience, says its placements are made at an average salary of. 10 lakh to 14 lakh. Last year it received 110 offers for 44 students in the interface design course. The institute has post graduate courses in information and interface design, design for digital experience, and design for retail experience. At NIFT, which has specialised IT industrybased electives in place, students used to be picked up start-ups that made mobile apps till some years ago. But now, its recruiters include names such as Myntra, Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal in e-retail, in addition to Infosys and Wipro in product design. Around 20% of all placements at NIFT are in technology, with average starting salaries of 4 lakh for under-graduate students.
- RISING STAR OF INDIA’S E-COMMERCE SPACE: Kunal Bahl refuses to define Snapdeal as an “e-commerce company.” Instead, he prefers describing his four-year-old venture as a consumer-focused technology company that provides a platform to vendors and buyers, allowing them to transact freely. What the 31-year-old Wharton Business School graduate, along with his co-founder and IIT Delhi alumnus Rohit Bansal, have achieved is to position Snapdeal as the biggest competitor to market leader Flipkart not just in geographical reach but also in fundraising. In the meantime, Bahl, the son of a UP businessman, somehow, still finds opportunities to send out irreverent tweets on a variety of subjects on Twitter. Politics is obviously an area of interest, as one may gauge from his bio on the popular micro-blogging website. It reads, ‘Entrepreneur. Maybe Politics.’ But Bahl might have to keep his political ambitions dormant for some time longer. Right now, it is Snapdeal that continues to garner pretty much all his attention. On Tuesday, the New Delhi-based online marketplace, which currently counts over 20,000 vendors selling on its platform, announced that it had raised $134 million (. 830.3 crore) from its institutional investors, a list that includes consumer-to-consumer giant eBay, and a number of marquee risk-capital firms, such as Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Nexus Venture Partners, among others. It’s been a frenetic four years for the Delhi Public School-educated Bahl and his childhood schoolmate-turned-business partner. The two first met while studying science in Class 11 and the relationship has evolved and prospered for the last 14 years. “The one thing I can take credit for is converting Rohit into a meat eater,” said Bahl, who prefers to unwind by watching movies and trying out global cuisines whenever time permits.
- Foreign fashion labels eye airport shops for India entry: A captive consumer base of air travelers, increase in sales volume and spendthrift shoppers are tempting foreign lifestyle brands to open stores at emerging airports in the country. US-based lingerie and beauty products retailer Victoria’s Secret is close to opening its first beauty and cosmetic store at T3, the international airport terminal in New Delhi. Even Armani Jeans, a fashion brand marketed by Genesis Luxury in India, is opening a stand-alone store at the Delhi airport. Both brands are being channeled through Delhi Duty Free Services Ltd. Although an email sent to Limited Brands that owns Victoria’s Secret remained unanswered, two people familiar with the company’s plans said the lingerie maker had been “seriously” eyeing entry into India. To be sure, agreements with Delhi Duty Free allows these brands to open stores on airport premises only. The stakeholders in Delhi Duty Free include Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd, GMR Group and Yalorvin Ltd, a 100% subsidy of Aer Rianta, an Irish travel retailer that manages and operates duty free and duty paid airport retail outlets in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
International:
- Blackstone agrees to buy 20% of Versace for $287m: Gianni Versace SpA, the Italian fashion house that features Lady Gaga in its latest advertising campaign, agreed to sell a 20% stake to Blackstone Group LP for 210 million ($287 million). Blackstone will inject 150 million into Versace and pay 60 million for shares owned by the Milan-based company's family owners, the parties said Thursday in a statement. The transaction values Versace at 1 billion, they said. The deal marks the end of a lengthy search by Versace's family owners to find an investor in the maker of $215 sunglasses and $5,925 bomber jackets after hiring Goldman Sachs Group and Banca IMI SpA in 2012. The fashion company, founded by the late Italian designer of the same name in 1978, said last year it plans to use the investment to fund growth before selling shares to the public in three to five years. Sales should grow 10% or more a year through that period, chief executive officer Gian Giacomo Ferraris told Bloomberg News in September. In 2012, Versace reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 44.5 million on revenue of 408.7 million. The fashion and luxury industry is consolidating as large groups such as LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA seek new sources of revenue and small companies turn to investors to help fund growth.
- Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries Mulls Wholesaling Options: Abercrombie & Fitch Co., working on some out-of-the-box thinking, is contemplating a major shift in its business model. The specialty chain is eyeing expanding the number of outside brands within its own stores and online, as well as selling its branded merchandise to other retailers. Separately, it is also testing made-for-outlet product in select locations. The strategy was disclosed in a conference call to Wall Street analysts by chief executive officer Michael S. Jeffries following Abercrombie’s reporting of fourth-quarter and full-year results. The shift comes as A&F is under increasing pressure from activist investor Engaged Capital — forcing Jeffries to cede the chairman’s title to Arthur Martinez — and has seen profits and sales fall amid the overall struggles within the teen sector. “From a strategic standpoint, it is clear that we need to be thinking outside of the confines of our existing vertical specialty retail model,” Jeffries said. “This includes looking at selling third-party brands through our channels, and selling our branded merchandise through third-party channels.”
- Chloé in Expansion Push: Echoing the view from her office on the Avenue Percier on a bright February morning, it’s a blue-sky moment for Clare Waight Keller, the creative director at Chloésince 2011. The English designer has renewed her contract for an unspecified duration, and has a slew of development projects on the horizon which includes a new fragrance that’s “more about seduction” than previous Chloé scents and is due out in September. A series of pop-up events in the U.S. for See by Chloé, the second line now bearing her imprint and poised for an expansion drive. An overhaul of the Madison Avenue boutique in New York to new Joseph Dirand architecture this spring. A key opening in Beijing’s Shin Kong Place in the second half that telegraphs the firm’s development in China. Building on nascent, but promising categories like costume jewelry and footwear. “I’m thrilled to carry on developing my idea of Chloé,” Waight Keller said in a joint interviewwith chief executive officer Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye. “I think there’s huge potential.” One cloud that has drifted from view is speculation that Chloé parent Compagnie Financière Richemont was looking to off-load the brand, and other “soft luxury” holdings, to concentrate on the luxury group’s core watch and jewelry business.
- Gap Income Slips, Outlines Plans: Gap Inc. saw fourth-quarter profits drop 12.5 percent but still believes it experienced “a very consistent” 2013 and sees brick and mortar increasingly relevant to the business as such initiatives as ship-from-store, order-in-store, and reserve-in-store get rolled out. “We are actually looking at the role of the store to incrementally increase as these services get provided to customers,” said Glenn Murphy, chief executive officer of Gap Inc., which on Thursday reported that net income for the fourth quarter fell to $307 million, or 68 cents a share on a diluted basis, compared to net income of $351 million, or 73 cents a share, in the year ago period. Murphy said the vast majority of customers prefer to get engaged with Gap Inc. online, but then go to the store to see and buy the products, though often with a cellphone to engage in social media. “This digital bridge is critical for us.” Gap’s net sales for the period ended Feb. 1 declined to $4.58 billion, compared with $4.73 billion for the year-ago period. Fourth-quarter comparable-store sales were up 1 percent, and Gap upped its quarterly dividend by 10 percent to 22 cents from 20 cents. Net income for the year was $1.28 billion, or $2.74 a share on a diluted basis, compared with net income of $1.14 billion, or $2.33 a share, the year before. Net sales increased 5 percent on a constant currency basis to $16.15 billion from $15.65 billion for the 2012 fiscal year. Comparable-store sales rose 2 percent.
- 1.25bn emails up for sale in digital black market: An internet security firm has stumbled upon a “mind-boggling” and “Godzilla-sized” cache of personal data put up for sale on the online black market by hackers. One of the hacker attacks stole over 105 million records making it the single largest data breach in cybercrime history. The trove included credentials from more than 360 million accounts and around 1.25 billion email addresses. The discovery was made by cybersecurity firm Hold Security. “These credentials can be stolen directly from your company but also from services in which you and your employees entrust data. In October 2013, Hold Security identified the biggest-ever public disclosure of 153 million stolen credentials from Adobe Systems. A month later we identified another large breach of 42 million credentials from Cupid Media,” the firm said. They accumulated the data over the past three weeks. The company first tracked over 300 million abused credentials that were not disclosed publicly (that is over 450 million credentials counting the Adobe find). “This month we exceeded all expectations. We identified 360 million stolen and abused credentials and 1.25 billion records containing only email addresses.
- Essilor to Buy Coastal.com for $401M: French optical firm Essilor Int'l S.A. has inked an agreement to acquire online optical company Coastal.com for $401 million. The Vancouver-based e-tailer's board has already approved the transaction for 445 million Canadian dollars, or $401 million, representing a cash offer of 12.45 Canadian dollars, or $11.22, a share. All conversions to U.S. dollars are at current exchange. Coastal said the offer represents a 43 percent premium over the company's three-month volume-weighted average price of 8.73 Canadian dollars, or $7.87, and an 84 percent premium over the six-month volume-weighted average price of 6.78 Canadian dollars, or $6.11. Coastal.com, a Warby Parker competitor, was advised by Guggenheim Securities, while Essilor was advised by J.P. Morgan. Wedbush recently initiated coverage of Coastal.com, giving it an outperform rating, and noting that the company is "positioned as a leader in the eyeglasses market." Unlike Warby Parker, which sells its proprietary designs, Coastal.com sells its private label eyewear brands and those of others, such as Oakley.
- Gordon Brothers to Close Dots Stores: A federal bankruptcy court in Newark, N.J. on Thursday approved the sale of the chain's assets to Gordon Brothers as the liquidation agent for the bankrupt retail chain. Going-out-of-business sales at the $325 million chain are expected to begin next month and end in May. The chain filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition for bankruptcy court protection last month, although it began feeling liquidity constraints in October when some vendors and factors either shortened the time frame for payment for goods or began demanding payment upon delivery.
Currency:
· 1 USD= ₹ 62.104
· 1 EUR= ₹ 85.117
· 1 GBP= ₹ 103.599
· 1 AUD= ₹ 55.577
Glitter Meter: India
Gold (INR/10g) | Silver (INR/kg) | |||
City | Current | Change | Current | Change |
Chennai | 30640.00 | -140 | 47430.00 | -1550 |
Mumbai | 30160.00 | -120 | 47430.00 | -1550 |
Delhi | 29910.00 | -120 | 47430.00 | -1550 |
Kolkata | 30030.00 | -130 | 47430.00 | -1550 |
World Indices:
Exchange | Last | Change |
DJIA | 16272.65 | +74.24 |
FTSE 100 | 6810.27 | +11.12 |
CAC 40 | 4396.39 | -0.52 |
DAX | 9588.33 | -73.40 |
Nikkei | 14920.65 | -2.46 |
Hang Seng | 22772.05 | -56.13 |
Sensex | 20999.21 | +12.22 |
NASDAQ | 4318.93 | +26.87 |
*Disclaimer:
World One Consulting Pvt Ltd will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information contained within this newsletter including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals.
World One Consulting Pvt Ltd will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information contained within this newsletter including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals.