Spotlighting Alkyl Amines
This month we place the spotlight on Alkyl Amines, a leading manufacturer of aliphatic amines – a key ingredient in the pharma and chemical industries. Over the last ten years (FY10-20), Alkyl has delivered earnings CAGR of 34% with an average pre-tax RoCE of 23% (these numbers look even better for the last 3 and […]
Coronavirus: Are Indians more immune to Covid-19?
Back in the early days of Covid spreading to Italy and other parts of Europe, there was talk about why Indians shouldn’t worry given our superior immune systems that has fought several diseases arising from the poor hygiene levels in the country. Such talk disappeared as the country rose through the ranks to become one […]
High quality equities remain the best option for growth
With a second wave of Covid infections threatening to derail what has been an encouraging economic recovery out of the lockdowns, yet markets rallying strongly, it is natural for investors to consider taking risk off the table and sell out of equities. Simon Edlesten, co-manager of the Mid Wynd International Investment Trust and Artemis Global […]
Inside the Chaotic Unraveling of Jack Ma’s $35 Billion IPO
Another story about Chinese authorities reining in critics. This time, a home-grown hero, Jack Ma, known for his successful e-commerce venture, Alibaba, was on the verge of taking public, his fintech group, Ant Group. Ant was hailed as the world’s largest IPO to date, planning to raise $35bn valuing the company at $315bn with its […]
The Erasure of Mesut Özil
Most celebrities tend to shy away from taking stances in public about political or social issues lest it jeopardise their thriving careers. There are of course exceptions, notably the great Muhammad Ali, the inspiration behind the name Marcellus. In recent times, Colin Kaepernick, the American football quarterback, whose career pretty much ended when he protested against […]
An Indian-Made Motorcycle With a Retro Look Is Coming After Harley
In our Little Champions portfolio (which is now shut to fresh inflows as it has reached capacity) we have highlighted that several small Indian companies now have world leading market shares in niche industries (see https://marcellus.in/newsletter/little-champs/spotlighting-garware-technical-fibres/). As you would expect, this trend is going to spread as the Indian economy’s expansion allows more companies to have […]
Value Investing III: Requiem, Rebirth or Reinvention?
The legendary finance professor begins this long piece by setting up his stall – value investing is dead he says because: “It has become rigid: In the decades since Ben Graham published Security Analysis, value investing has developed rules for investing that have no give to them. Some of these rules reflect value investing history […]
Deglobalization: The ultimate ‘fake news’ story
It has become fashionable to say that we are in the age of de-globalization driven by hyper-nationalist politicians. Thankfully, the data simply does not support such an alarmist narrative. Instead the data on trade and on capital flows shows that globalization continues to progress apace. The creation of a false narrative 2016 was the year […]
Rewards of waiting for a ‘lower purchase price’ in CCP vs others
Share price performance of the Nifty50 and Marcellus’ CCP portfolio constituents over the past two decades shows that the benefits of waiting for lower purchase prices fade away meaningfully as the quality of the portfolio’s fundamentals improves. Investors who make periodic investments in companies with weak fundamentals benefit substantially from timing the purchase prices – […]
‘I feel free here’: how a miracle girls’ school was built in India’s ‘golden city’
We end this week’s edition with an inspiring story about how an artist and anthropologist from New York built a school for 400 girls in rural Rajasthan. “Rajasthan is one of the most conservative states in India, where ancient customs circumscribe a woman’s freedom and in turn any chance of economic independence. …[Michael] Daube, an […]
My Approach to Valuation
Abdullah Al-Rezwan is a young analyst who publishes some deep dive research on specific companies on his blog. In this piece, he shares his approach to valuation, a subject often misunderstood and misused. Abdullah brings out the limitations given the inexact nature of valuation as a science yet the importance of using it to improve […]
History shows that equities outperform under Democrats
The title of the article may be a bit misleading i.e, the author, who is the Chief Investment Strategist at Charles Schwab, doesn’t actually suggest one should get excited about a certain presidential candidate’s prospects of winning the elections from the market’s perspective. Infact, she reckons quite to the contrary – elections are by and […]
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