Long read: How an American woman built one of India’s most prestigious medical schools
CMC Vellore (or to use its full name, Christian Medical College Vellore) is a legendary medical college – probably second only to AIIMS in the league table of India’s top medical schools – where some of India’s finest doctors practice. Living in this era of resurgent nationalism, we were stunned to learn from this fine […]
Global Compounders Portfolio: First Anniversary Review
Marcellus’ Global Compounders Portfolio (GCP) strategically invests in 25-30 deeply moated global companies aligned with megatrends, fostering a consistent mid to high teens compounding of free cash flow/earnings. As GCP reaches its first birthday, we reflect on our journey. Despite the brief time span, it’s reassuring to witness the portfolio’s progress aligning with our expectations, […]
Short read: The fallout from the weirdness at OpenAI
For those of you who may have missed the drama at OpenAI, the startup at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence or AI becoming mainstream: “On November 17th the board of the maker of ChatGPT suddenly booted out its chief executive (Sam Altman). On the 19th it looked as if Mr Altman would move to Microsoft, […]
Short read: Your hair loss is not solely about genes. Air pollution is turning you bald as well
Hair loss is a thing in Marcellus and its afflicting many of our colleagues in their 20s and 30s. Whilst the stress related to our jobs plays a role, Dr Bhardwaj, a dermatologist, says that the crazy levels of air pollution prevalent in much of the country also contributes to hair loss: “Air pollution has […]
Short read: How many women work in India’s factories?
Dhruvika Dhamija’s data crunch throws up several remarkable facts such as: “Seventy two percent of all women working in industries across India were employed in just four southern states – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala… Additionally, there is a wide gender-wage gap. For every INR 100 a male industrial worker earned as wages […]
Long read: The Unbelievable Zombie Comeback of Analog Computing
Eversince ChatGPT brought Artificial Intelligence (AI) mainstream, the discourse on how AI will change the world as we know, has taken all sorts of dimensions. (Read our last short read for the drama around governance at AI’s most famous startup). But few would have expected AI to drive the resurgence in analog computing, something considered […]
Long read: Book review of ‘India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of A Most Surprising Democracy’ by Madhav Khosla
Madhav Khosla is a superstar academic in the making with a formidable CV: “Madhav Khosla is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Ashoka University, the Ambedkar Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Columbia University, and a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. He works across a range of themes in public law and […]
How Policymakers Have Driven Economic Change in India
Post-1947, India’s economy has been through four distinct eras. Now, with socialism fading away and with the country increasingly operating as a free market economy, we see five distinct directions in which India’s economy will evolve over the next decade: (1) Profits will polarize in the hands of a few highly efficient companies; (2) Wealth […]
The Risks of Owning an Individual Stock
The majority of the listed companies in India fail to beat the market cap weighted index. In this newsletter, we discuss why the odds are stacked against an individual investor owning a small set of stocks. Over a longer investment horizon, returns of benchmark indices as well as the net wealth created in stock markets […]
Stress Test for Rising Giants
Marcellus’ Rising Giants portfolio (RGP) aims to discover companies with a high probability of entry into benchmark Nifty50 index over the next 3-5 years thus capturing the outsized returns that typically accrue to potential Nifty50 entrants. Over the past year, some of the RGP stocks have faced temporary headwinds mainly on account of Covid-19 demand normalization, […]
Portfolio Performance and Update on Fundamentals – Oct 2023 – Marcellus
Consistent Compounders Portfolio (CCP) Our portfolio companies’ reported fundamentals in 2QFY24 continue to demonstrate strength and consistency – portfolio’s revenue growth was 22% YoY and EPS growth was 28% YoY in the quarter ending 30th September 2023. Several of our portfolio companies reported revenue growth rates, significantly healthier than other players in the same industry. For instance, […]
11 Things I Learned About Investing
Plenty has been written about investing by investors or about investors. Here’s one piece which tells us why we should chart our own course whilst learning from the best. Frederik Gieschen starts by saying why our first job is to know ourselves: “…You have to understand your temperament and your relationship to money. Wrong about […]
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