Marcellus Insights

Who gets to be reckless on Wall Street?

In the wake of the day trading frenzy which has swept across America and India during the Covid lockdown, there has been plenty of media commentary on this phenomenon. Millions of middle class people in both countries have taken to online trading in the past three months and as this piece describes, they are not […]

Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds

When we are young we used to participate in impassioned debates centred around causes we believed in. As we grow older, we tend to realise the futility of such debates. Whilst you & I might think, our reluctance is on account of world weariness, in this piece James Clear articulates an alternative explanation: “The economist J.K. […]

Slow Recovery Healthy For Markets? | Saurabh Mukherjea To ET NOW

The Rise of the Next Generation of Champion Franchises

Covid-19 is leading to rapid consolidation across a range of sectors in India, including sectors in which well-run small cap companies participate. Whilst the ability of Consistent Compounders like Asian Paints, HDFC Bank and Page Industries to consolidate market share during times of economic distress is well known, the rise of smaller consolidators from our […]

How Hindi films edged closer to Hollywood over the past decade

Bollywood, as the Hindi film industry is widely referred to, is most known for its colourful ‘song and dance’ sequences. However, this article in the Mint uses IMDB data over the last decade to show how that might not be any more than just a banal description of Hindi films. Bollywood seems to be coming […]

PlayStation’s secret weapon: a nearly all-automated factory

In May this year, the Indian Prime Minister launched the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ or ‘Self-Reliant India Mission’ to reduce dependence on imports and boost domestic manufacturing. Given the large share of electronic goods in the import bill, naturally this is one industry that is high up on the priority for this mission. Whilst it might […]

The Long Unhappy History of Working From Home

In the first few days of the lockdown, we featured a piece in 3L-3S, which waxed eloquent about the benefits of Working From Home (WFH) and how it is here to stay. Indeed, the ensuing period saw several large corporations implementing policies where large proportions of their workforce would end up WFH permanently. Facebooks aims […]

The Attack of The Civilization State

Much has been written about the rise of hyper-nationalism with strong men at the helm across countries the world over. This outstanding essay by Bruno Macaes, Portugal’s former secretary of state, attributes this rise to the inherently conflicting perceptions of the concept of western civilisation by nations world over and their reaction to that. The […]

How Berkshire Hathaway May Have Been Snookered in Germany

We spend a significant amount of our time in Marcellus probing our investee companies’ accounts for fraud & theft. It is exhausting work and given the ingenuity of Indian promoters and the Chartered Accountants they hire, it is never ending work. We often lie in bed thinking about the various ways a promoter could be […]

The 5 Elements That Make For An Outstanding Business

Whilst this piece is written in the context of investing in the United States, it gels nicely with Marcellus’ investment philosophy. That apart, the piece elegantly explains the benefits of “Identifying, buying and holding very good businesses over a long period of time can help deliver good returns. While there is no universal template, founder-led businesses […]

Little Champs Are Using The Crisis To Their Advantage

The Little Champs portfolio delivered a PBT growth of 1% in FY20 (compared to the BSE Smallcap’s median decline of 10-15%), a resilient show despite an economy disturbed by Covid-19 towards the year end. Furthermore, with their cost and cash focus, Little Champs have been able to maintain healthy RoCE (19% pre-tax) and debt levels […]

More Younger People Are Testing Positive for the Coronavirus

Daily new cases in the US after having been on a decline for almost two months has surged again in the past two weeks with the count well north of 50,000. Whilst this doesn’t seem to suggest a second wave as bulk of the new cases are coming from states which are seeing a late […]