Thought of the Day:
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
Thomas Edison
Did you know?
Horseshoe crabs have eyes on their tail.
India:
International:
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
Thomas Edison
Did you know?
Horseshoe crabs have eyes on their tail.
India:
- Perseverance pays for Mukesh Ambani's retail foray as his business turns to profit: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail is poised to perform a rare feat in India's notoriously complex retail market by finally turning a profit. The time and cost involved, however, could put off global and local rivals from even trying to copy it. It took Reliance Retail, part of Ambani's conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd , seven years of losses, bruising trial-and-error and over $1 billion in investments to find a formula that works for India, the world's fifth largest retail market and one of its fastest growing. This seemingly inexhaustible combination of financing and patience has given Reliance an edge over smaller local rivals that lack its deep pockets, and global chains like Carrefour SA and Wal-Mart Stores Inc which would have to invest vast amounts of capital, time and energy to set up retail shops in India but reap miniscule initial returns. "No global chain will pour money immediately to build up a business here even if they can," said Saloni Nangia, president of retail consultancy Technopak India. "They will be cautious about their investments, keeping in mind the political landscape in India and shareholder sentiment back home. With 1.2 billion people and a rapidly growing middle class, India's potential has long beguiled retailers but regulatory uncertainty, poor infrastructure and opposition from politically powerful small traders has kept most global chains at bay.
- Faltering Economy Forces Couples to Opt for ‘Minimoons’: Sachin and Priyanka Kumar wanted a two-week honeymoon at a beach-side villa in Goa. But like a lot of newlyweds, they were forced to face budget constraints in an uncertain economic environment. Full-scale honeymoon packages can run from . 75,000 to . 2.5 lakh depending on the destination and the hotel; unaffordable for many couples just starting out. That’s when the Kumars chanced upon a ‘minimoon’ offer — a shorter and cheaper version of the real thing — and grabbed it. “Even if we saved money for a 10-day getaway later, we would not have time from our work schedules,” said Kumar, who along with his wife spent their minimoon at Holiday Inn in Goa. Rising work commitments and a credit squeeze have forced hundreds of such newlyweds to cut down on the traditional week to 10-day honeymoon in favour of such budget ‘minimoons’. For hotels, also facing the brunt of a slump, such innovations mean that they can get rooms filled with paying customers. “With work schedules becoming hectic and time constraints making it extremely difficult for couples to enjoy an extended honeymoon or vacations, minimoons are fast becoming the trend,” said Deepa Harris, senior vice-president, global sales and marketing, Taj Group of Hotels. A 10-city survey by the Taj Group found that 69% of Indian couples don’t want to postpone their honeymoons because of the pressure of work but would rather opt for shorter breaks instead. Such packages cost about . 10,000-55,000. For instance, Taj offers allinclusive minimoon packages at . 28,000 to . 55,000 at spa destinations such as Goa and Kerala and palace hotels in Jodhpur and Jaipur.
- Nestle owned Galderma eyes skin boosters to capture Indian beauty market: Switzerland-based skincare company Galderma, owned by Nestle, is betting big on its range of anti-ageing injectables and expect to capture a substantial share in India's booming beauty market. "Our range of Restylane vital skin boosters is getting encouraging response in India. The company will soon launch a new range of products in this segment," Scott Mclennan, Head of Regional Centre of Excellence (Asia-Pacific), Galderma, said here. He said the company expects to further strengthen its presence in the Indian aesthetic market with this product range. The size of the beauty care industry in India was estimated at Rs 29,000 crore in 2012. Mclennan also said the company has started academies in Mumbai and New Delhi to provide training to doctors in aesthetic medicines. "There is a huge demand in India as the sector is still in the infant stage in the country but we see huge opportunities. As this area needs precision, we have started training doctors," he said. He said the number of practitioners in India is low as compared to other developing countries like Korea. "In India, there are only 800 doctors who are practising aesthetic medicine. On the other hand, in Korea the number is 6,000. This means, a huge market is there in India which we can tap," he told reporters.
- Retail investors may be unable to tap govt ETF: The lack of a robust distribution network for the sale of mutual fund (MF) products in India could limit the participation of retail investors in the Rs 3,000-crore new fund offer (NFO) of the central public sector enterprises (CPSE)’ exchange-traded fund (ETF), which opened on Wednesday. Sources said many individual investors were interested in applying for the NFO, due to additional benefits being offered such as upfront discounts and loyalty bonuses. But many might not be able to invest due to lack of support from distributors. Technically, this is the first time the government is divesting through the MF route. In the past, most divestments have been through traditional share sales. Share sales are through stock brokers, unlike MF schemes, which need the support of distributors. “The CPSE ETF cannot be sold through stock brokers, as Sebi rules don’t allow it. The applications in the NFO have to come through MF distributors. Large distributors, which have online presence, have been empanelled to sell the product. However, there could be logistical issues for investors wanting to make physical applications,” said a person privy to the matter.
- Snapdeal's annual sales likely to touch Rs 6,100 crore: E-commerce company Snapdeal, one of the top rivals toFlipkart, is likely to achieve annual sales, described in the online world as gross merchandise value (GMV), of Rs 6,100 crore ($1 billion) within the next two-to-three months, sources said. Earlier this month, Flipkart had announced it would touch the sales run rate of $1 billion much ahead of the target date. Both Flipkart and Snapdeal have been aiming for $1 billion GMV by 2015. GMV is the worth of sales transactions on a website. E-commerce players calculate the annual GMV based on the monthly run rate. Kunal Bahl, chief executive officer and co-founder of Snapdeal, declined to comment on the GMV target. However, sources indicated the company would reach the target way ahead of its 2015 schedule and might list in the US stock market within two years. Recently, Koovs, a fashion portal, became the first non-travel e-commerce website to list on AIM of London Stock Exchange. “Going for public listing right now takes away some flexibility that we need as a growing company in an emerging market. We will take some time before we do that,” Snapdeal’s Bahl told Business Standard. The company, a leading marketplace player as opposed to inventory-led format, was recently in the news for raising its fourth round of funds,'estimated at Rs 830 crore from investors led by eBay, Snapdeal, launched in 2010, is expecting over 50 per cent of its sales through mobile by the end of this year and is looking at spending more aggressively in technology. At present, 35 per cent of its transactions happens through mobile.
- Volvo Teams up with Bangalore Co to Produce Buses for Emerging Markets: Volvo has teamed up with a Bangalorebased company to launch a new range of buses targeted at India and other emerging markets while the Swedish automaker aims for a bigger share of the world’s secondlargest bus market. Volvo has formed a joint venture with SM Kannappa Automobiles to form a new company, Prakash Bus Corp that will manufacture UD brand of buses from a facility near Kolar, about 70 kilometre from Bangalore. “By the year 2020, we see huge growth in the value segment and UD buses will help the company get a significant share of this segment,” said Akash Passey, senior vice president of Volvo. The price of the UD range is yet to be finalised although ET learns that the segment of buses costs . 45-50 lakh. Domestic auto firms, including Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, sell buses for around . 30 lakh apiece. Daimler is also in the process of introducing its buses under the Daimler-Benz (premium) and Bharat Benz (value) brands. Volvo is the dominant player in the . 80 lakhplus luxury segment. Passey said that rising demand in tier I and tier II cities is one factor which made the company venture into this “untapped segment.” Volvo hopes to replicate its success from the top end range which it started selling in 2001.
- After McDowell's Whiskey, Officer’s Choice, Royal Stag latest to join $1 bn sales club: Two Indian whisky brands Royal Stag and Officer's Choice soaked in $1 billion in retail sales last calendar, keeping growth rates intact despite spiraling prices influenced by tax hikes, according to industry research and company data. Indian consumer brands in the billion-dollar league by retail value aren't common. Dairy giant Amul is possibly the largest with sales topping $3 billion and Tatas' jewellery brand Tanishq is the other big one at $1.4 billion. Royal Stag ($1.3 billion) and Officer's Choice ($1.25 billion) are the latest to join McDowell's No.1 whisky, the first Indian spirits brand to reach the billion-dollar mark two years ago. New York-based alcoholic beverage industry digest Impact said McDowell's No.1 whisky approached $2 billion in sales in 2013, as sales value vaulted on the back of soaring retail prices. The brand is the flagship of United Spirits, India's largest distiller controlled by Diageo now. New whisky entrants Royal Stag and Officer's Choice are owned by Pernod Ricard and Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD) respectively. More domestic liquor brands are expected to enter the billion-dollar club in the coming years as state governments furiously raise taxes to fix their broken finances, and companies try premiumizing, translating into higher consumer prices.
International:
- Google, Facebook drive gains in mobile advertising: The market for mobile device advertising doubled in 2013 to $17.9 billion and is on pace for strong gains this year, led by Facebook and Google, a market tracker said Wednesday. The research firm eMarketer said mobile ad spending increased 105 percent last year and is expected to jump another 75 percent in 2014 to more than $34 billion. Facebook and Google grabbed the lion's share of the market -- combining for some $6.92 billion in net mobile ad revenues in 2013. Google remained far ahead of its rivals, but saw its market share dip to 49.3 percent in 2013 from 52.6 percent in 2012, eMarketer said. The biggest gains came from Facebook, whose market share jumped to 17.5 percent from 5.4 percent a year earlier. Twitter also saw strong gains but its share was a modest 2.4 percent from 1.5 percent in 2012. For 2014, eMarketer sees Google at 46.8 percent, Facebook at 21.7 percent and Twitter at 2.6 percent. The huge growth in mobile ads show why these companies are concentrating on their mobile platforms. According to eMarketer, just 11 percent of Facebook ad revenues worldwide came from mobile in 2012, but last year, that figure jumped to 45 percent and the figure will be around 63 percent this year. Google is expected to get a third of its ad revenue from mobile this year, up from 23 percent in 2013, the report said.
- Sony to reduce suppliers to speed up product development: Sony Corp will reduce by about three-quarters the number of its parts suppliers to speed up development of its electronic products, the Nikkei reported on Thursday. Sony, which currently has about 1,000 suppliers, plans to reduce the number to buy cutting-edge components on a preferential basis through larger order volumes, the newspaper reported. Sony aims to save nearly 10 billion yen ($98.5 million) through bulk purchasing, according to the Nikkei. The Japanese consumer electronics maker plans to select two or three major global suppliers for core components such as wireless communication parts, sensors, chips and display panels, the newspaper said. The list of suppliers is likely to include Qualcomm Inc and Taiwan's MediaTek Inc for smartphone chips, Murata Manufacturing Co Ltd for multilayer ceramic capacitors and Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp for liquid crystal display panels, the business daily reported. Sony cut the number of its suppliers to 1,000 in fiscal 2013 from 2,500 in fiscal 2008 to reduce costs.
- Angry Shopper unleashes Shakespeare on seller: If you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” It was perhaps this quotation from ‘The Merchant of Venice’ that Edd Joseph had in mind when he first realized he’d been ripped off online. Two weeks ago, the 24-year-old graphic designer spent £80 buying a PS3 games console from online marketplace Gumtree but was disappointed when the console failed to arrive, even after repeated attempts to contact the seller. His response? To text the unscrupulous vendor the entire works of Shakespeare beginning with Macbeth. “I was really annoyed and I was trying to think of ways of being more in the position of power because I felt so helpless about it,” Joseph told the Bristol Post. “My first thought was that I could try and pretend I had found out where he lived but it was all a bit of a cliche and it wasn’t going to worry him really. Then it just occurred to me you can copy and paste things from the internet and into a text message. It got me thinking, ‘what can I send to him’ which turned to ‘what is a really long book’, which ended with me sending him Macbeth.” Joseph has been able to send the plays with minimum effort by copy and pasting the plays from his phone’s web browser into the messaging app, which automatically breaks the text up into 160-word messages and sends them one by one. A phone contract from O2 with unlimited text messaging takes care of the costs. Macbeth was sent in 600 messages, ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ took 861 and ‘Hamlet’ — Shakespeare’s longest play — was staggered over a smartphone-crippling 1,143 texts. Joseph has so far sent 22 of Shakespeare 37 works and thinks that by the time his revenge comedy ends he will have delivered a total of 29,305 messages as payback to the online conman.
- Mandela family launches wine collection in Netherlands: Nelson Mandela's oldest daughter Makaziwe and a granddaughter on Wednesday launched their wine collection in the Netherlands, hoping the world-famous branding will help them conquer the European market. Called the "Thembu Collection" after Mandela's tribe of Xhosa-speaking people, the House of Mandela winery's products mark the Mandela family's first commercial venture, Makaziwe Mandela told journalists at a launch in Amsterdam. "As a family we always wanted to tell the story of the House of Mandela. It's not only about my father, but also where he came from and where our roots are," Makaziwe said. The wines, which are already available in South Africa and other parts of the world, sell at a recommended price of 5.49 euros ($7.66) in the Netherlands and come in four varieties, two red and two white. There's an unassuming Pinotage, made from a uniquely South African grape first produced in the 1920s when Pinot Noir was crossed with cinsaut. The second red is a feisty Merlot, made especially for the Dutch market, and two whites -- a fruity Chardonnay and a crisp Sauvignon Blanc. "I won't tell you about the tasting notes for these wines. What I know is that I love every single wine in these bottles," Makaziwe said. She said the idea to venture into wine was first sparked after Mandela's 85th birthday party -- held in Johannesburg back in 2003 and attended by 500 invited guests. The dream was finally realised in 2010 when Makaziwe and her daughter Tukwini started their own wine company, using local wineries in South Africa's wine-rich Western Cape province to source grapes and produce House of Mandela's wines.
- Tencent holdings ltd says will continue to invest in e-commerce and mobile: Tencent Holdings Ltd will continue to make investments in e-commerce and mobile to improve platforms such as the WeChat mobile messaging app, company officials said on an earnings call on Wednesday. Tencent wants to invest in "best in class" companies to build up its services, the firm said, as people increasingly use their smartphones to interact with the world around them, including shopping and booking taxis. Tencent spent 19.1 billion yuan ($3.08 billion) on investments in 2013, up 17.6 percent from the previous year, as they poured money into expanding WeChat from a messaging service to one that can be used for shopping, making payments through a smartphone, booking restaurants and movies and investing in wealth management products. However, Tencent said it would keep 2014 international marketing spend on WeChat at a similar level to last year, with spending focused on markets where WeChat is being used rather than breaking into new markets.
- Bottega Veneta CEO Says Bigger, Not More Shops Key To Growth: Bottega Veneta, Kering’s No.2 luxury brand in terms of sales, is slowing down the pace of shop openings to preserve exclusivity, and plans to focus on enlarging and improving the performance of its existing stores, its head said. The Italian brand famous for its “intrecciato”, a weaving of leather stripes that makes its bags supple, robust and recognizable, is one of Kering’s main growth engines, helping make up for slower growth at sister brand Gucci. Bottega Veneta is also a relatively logo-free brand, which means that it suffers less than Gucci or bigger rival Louis Vuitton, owned by LVMH, from consumers’ growing preference for more discreet labeling. Gucci and Louis Vuitton have also been hit by excessive expansion and are now trying to regain their exclusivity by moving upmarket, offering more expensive leather bags and opening fewer shops. “We need to carefully balance retail expansion and exclusivity, which is one of the biggest topics in the luxury goods industry today,” Bottega Veneta Chief Executive Marco Bizzarri told Reuters in an interview.
- Tiffany Names New CFO: Tiffany & Co. has named Ralph Nicoletti as its next executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective April 2. Nicoletti, 56, will report to chairman and chief executive officer Michael J. Kowalski. Tiffany said its present cfo, James N. Fernandez, 58, has said he plans to retire in July. Fernandez, a 30-year veteran of the Tiffany, is also the company's chief operating officer. The accessories firm plans to eliminate the position of chief operating officer upon Fernandez's retirement. Nicoletti joins Tiffany from CIGNA, where he holds the same positions. Before that he was executive vice president and cfo at Alberto Culver.
- Retail Remains Open in Ukraine: Tensions between the West and Russia may be rising over Crimea, but that hasn’t stopped European brands in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev from trading. A Ferragamo spokesman said the brand’s store never shut — even during the height of the violent antigovernment protests earlier this year. He said that, due to the current situation, footfall on Kreshatyk Passage, the luxuryshopping street where Ferragamo is located, has slowed, “but our store has never been closed, and all the planned marketing activities with our partners are continuing, but with a ‘soft profile.’” A spokeswoman for Tom Ford said the Kiev store is currently open, but had been closed on-and-off since December due to the crisis. Chanel and Zara are also open, as is Marks & Spencer, which has 12 stores in Ukraine, half of which are in Kiev. “Some of the Kiev stores temporarily closed last month as a precaution. But now they are all trading, and we are working with our franchise partner to monitor the situation,” an M&S spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Currency:
· 1 USD= ₹ 61.207
· 1 EUR= ₹ 84.663
· 1 GBP= ₹ 101.238
· 1 AUD= ₹ 55.200
Glitter Meter: India
Gold (INR/10g) | Silver (INR/kg) | |||
City | Current | Change | Current | Change |
Chennai | 30240.00 | -160 | 46280.00 | -845 |
Mumbai | 29760.00 | -160 | 46280.00 | -845 |
Delhi | 29520.00 | -160 | 46280.00 | -845 |
Kolkata | 29640.00 | -160 | 46280.00 | -845 |
World Indices:
Exchange | Last | Change |
DJIA | 16222.17 | -114.02 |
FTSE 100 | 6573.13 | -32.15 |
CAC 40 | 4308.06 | -5.20 |
DAX | 9277.05 | +34.50 |
Nikkei | 14253.99 | -208.53 |
Hang Seng | 21324.96 | -243.73 |
Sensex | 21793.05 | -39.81 |
NASDAQ | 4307.60 | -25.71 |
*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.