DTH, HD, 3D and a TRP rating of almost 12, meaning 150 million viewers for this game alone or 25 million households in the Cricket World Cup semi finals between India and Pakistan. It does put it out there and finally ESPN had a paying proposition in Asia after a good 20 years.. But importantly, 150k people watched it on HD without advertising and that holds for the finals on Saturday as well. The Max team may not get the same done for the IPL extravaganza starting next week, though. The 25 million households is a record for more than 80% better than entertainment programs like KBC, the Who wants...franchise show and even the IPL1 and 3 semi finals and the hot rod games in the 56 day fest. The Cricket world cup has earlier set the record for getting 160 million viewers for the event this time. Of course NFL and Premier League fans would probably still like to question the impact with their own 200 million spins but this is just counting the domestic audience and we are certainly there, in the front seat for the game

Assuming an other 60-80 million viwers across the cricketing world we seem to have a new World Champion!

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Auto sales reports up 10% M-o-M and up 20% year on year, now to a 2 million clip (annual run rate), the increasing bank rates, the drums announcing India's wins over kenya, sri lanka, australia and maybe pakistan tomorrow and then the IPL drawing 160 million viewers after the world cup on the trot, the limited withdrawals by FIIs and ready reckoners on daily positive accretions by them, the allowing of global finance companies and hedge funds in India with Goldman Sachs. While this is just in the monthly news flow with sectors changing hands very quickly for new stock exchange darlings every week, the daily dose of  100-500 million INR deals like Sweekar for Cargill and Henkel for Jyothy or Wipro also shows the media in India is seemingly satisfactorily enabled for a synchronous news and information flow with even scams finding space in it like clockwork.

Somehow, the picture isn't complete ever showing something missing with neither the Food Security Bill, nor Insurance reforms making the cu. In fact IFRS, PFRDA, DTC and GST also remain stuck in the needle for a full 2-3 year run as issues and non issues competing with Mamta's election as Bengal CM The WSJ is quite a wallflower in India but the global deal flow and the crisis in Europe and Japan are now more crystal clear esp for readers and subscribers at Advantages.us. The more things change , the more they remian the same or just a bitsy place in the sun for the seemingly largest democracy in the civilised world as we consider India to be? 

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Pretty sic thru the conducted tour of the cash scrips easy machinations as the buyers just dropped out of the buying of Jyothy for 72 hours and equally inexplicably picked it up from 184 to 198 in half an hour before closing. nevertheless a great investment once liquidity can be maintained by anointed market makers who can be held responsible instead of faceless masked marauders who just play on nerves of selected buyers and analysts. Not many interested in taking the stock anywhere either but the deal is value accretive and probably swinging Jyothy Labs' way

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Headstrong follows in the CTS tradition of poor public proxy

In an otherwise dull and drab infotech industry hanging by an Infosys, a soap turned soap opera (Wipro not Infosys), and mostly the bellwethers TCS, KPIT and the erstwhile satyam ( they are still the market favorites, institutional favorites and reform faves too) the one thing most obvious to outsourcing denizens and investment bankers both has been the unsuitableness of these other o-not-so-public, o-so-private candidates from the big 4 consulting companuies ( usually renamed buyers in Copy edit paste cop outs ) and the remaining outsourcing 'know how' in HCL ( no, that's public) Cognizant, Mindtree (again listed ( are you sure, i have this right) and Emphasis, iGate and CTSH With Headstrong also up for sale to Cap Gemini and IBM hanging on to the PWC business, the future of consulting - cum - outsourcing (zyaada) is all but obvious for all of us  to see. As many of the strategists with links to the industry like self are offshoots of both investment banking as well as sales CRM and outsourcing industry the unsaid obvious i have always seen is that the only chances of making moolah in the consulting buisiness are in large ticket outs deals which deny everyone the moolah.

And there it is, Cap Gemini falling prey to an army of less than ten sales persons and even lesser number of analysts and researches on the job in reviewing and buying the large ticket and the old ticket accounts from Headstrong in the current case with presumable legacy larger prestigious accounts. HCL has saved a couple of acquisitions yet but a fair comparisn is not possible with Cognizant redefining the league and pretending to trade only in the institutional markets nearer the north pole than in ravenously hungry emerging market mumbai

When will they ever learn!

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Headstrong follows in the CTS tradition of poor public proxy

In an otherwise dull and drab infotech industry hanging by an Infosys, a soap turned soap opera (Wipro not Infosys), and mostly the bellwethers TCS, KPIT and the erstwhile satyam ( they are still the market favorites, institutional favorites and reform faves too) the one thing most obvious to outsourcing denizens and investment bankers both has been the unsuitableness of these other o-not-so-public, o-so-private candidates from the big 4 consulting companuies ( usualyy renamed buyers in Copy edit paste cop outs ) and the remaining outsourcing 'know how' in HCL ( no, that's public) Cognizant, Mindtree (again listed ( are you sure, i have this right) and Emphasis., iGate and CTSH With CTS also up for sale to Cap Gemini and IBM hanging on to the PWC business, the future of consulting - cum - outsourcing (zyaada) is all but obvious for all of us  to see. As many of the strateguists like self are offshoots of both investment banking as well as investment banking industry the unsaid obvious i have always seen is that the only chances of making moolah in the consulting buisiness are in large ticket outs deals which deny everyone the moolah. Adn there it is, Cap Gemini falling prey to an army of less than ten sales persons and even lesser number of analysts and researches on the job in reviewing and buying the large ticket and the old ticket accounts from Headstrong in the current case.

When will they ever learn!

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Well, the low key approach from the promoters or otherwise, the assymetric news flow in the markets remains a bigger conundrum to solve even as traditional markets like India get evenly jelly bellied on discussions of the term srelated to "indsider" insider trading, inside news, inside man, inside ..you know the drill. 

Jyothy Labs however seems sitting pretty on a big deal with the 14.9% stake buy a precursor to an offer for the entire 51% stake of Henkel in the big brand discount sale with the TN Petro subsidiary. Not only is the company negotiating for a price nearer the 35 it offered to the first sale. It is also hoping for a quick sale / open offer at the mandated 52 bucks per share just over a Dollar a share for the portfoliowell worth nearly a Billlion compared to the current pricing at 900 crores for the entire company. Even at the listed market rates of $1.2 per share the valuation comes to a niggly $ 0.25 billion a cool $250 million for this retail lifestyle purchase with substance. 

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The firm just got a great pick in Henkel which has a handsome positive brand value in Henkel and more at a throwaway 35 per share. So why is the stock tanking 10% from 240 where it opened. The company is unlikely to face any challenges in QIP placements for the $13 million purchase worth a paltry INR600 million in cost but probably worth $100 millions conservatively in brand and net worth accretions 

The stake is below the 15% mark requiring no open offers for the next 20% or change in management control, whence in a strange tradition like ITC and RELIANCE before, the acquirer is trading down wildly penalised by the market for buying more business. 

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As we sit in the trading room, battling dumping of good stocks in untimely mis picks the profits from good trades seem suddenly in danger. India's stability is in question. Why? Well, the bank committee on monetary policy had a few eye openers and despite the brave public ways of hiding the good stuff, unnecessarily the markets are on edge trading 5 times the volatility and unable to decide on a single negative to the banks from the bank policy afternoon.

Investors, FIIs and new hands to the Emerging Markets story have turned in a new mix for this largest democracy vying for deep pockets for its multitude of infrastructure improvements it has to finance without access to changing the democratic, parliamentary socialist democracy and its crowd of financial market participants trying to tear its markets asunder in vain hope in much a rain shortened daily date from 9 to 5. I say rain shortened because the only answers are much like the negotiated and settled ones in the cliched situation in the game of cricket when you cannot get a full result. For Inter and Man United fans, it would mean playing in a downpour and for the NFL guys it would be in the face of a blizzard at the Patriots home stadium.

But it is a busy day with networks having run into great quality content as well and torn asunder by dwindling loyalties as all the special situations that could be stored and resuscitated in trading plays having been on since 2008 till now. Here comes the big bad wolf, the big deal and thus the big fall from an expectation filled event like the March policy announcements. Half the monetary reforms in the monetary policy won't be touched by the policy and there will be a rate hike. The Sun will rise from the east and hence banks would have improved the rate of accretion of deposits, hurt to the NII minimised, we of course sit pretty on a traditional regulation structure which gives us plenty of protection fro mcapital destruction events and the Forbes lists can soon include bank promoters too by virtue of more voting stock. But as Dimon sdaid, we need more, much more!

The Euro is back though and the Gold investments worth holding on to. And Indian banking diaspora are riding on good press from back home as Vikram Pandit and Anshu Jain hang on to the US roller coaster by the coat tails

Related articles

• DIARY - Major Central Bank Meetings for 2011 (reuters.com)
• Economists Bemoan Brazil Interest Rates to Central Bank (blogs.forbes.com)
• Bank of Japan shortens next week's policy meeting (marketwatch.com)
• US dollar holds steady against euro, yen after Fed (reuters.com)

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