How Diljit Dosanjh, Raja Kumari challenged ‘tone-deaf’ Coachella fashion—sneakers to prints
Whilst the deracination of affluent urban Indian youth continues apace, some of India’s homegrown pop icons are flaunting their Indian identity on the global stage. Central to this identity is their clothing – no more denims jeans & jackets for our popstars; enter traditional Indian wear with a designer edge: “Punjabi pop sensation Diljit Dosanjh […]
Picking a Stock for the Year 2048
In the book Coffee Can Investing, co-authored by Marcellus’ founders, we talk about the concept of buying high quality stocks (RoCE greater than cost of capital every year for atleast a decade) with high reinvestment rates and leaving them untouched for ten years and how such an approach delivered market beating returns. This approach looks […]
The west is in the grip of a decoupling delusion
James Crabtree, known to many in India as the author of ‘The Billionaire Raj’, says that the more the West tries to move to a ‘China+1’ model for sourcing manufactured goods, the more it shoves the rest of Asia into China’s steely arms: “Global businesses now talk about “friend-shoring”, meaning moving production towards geopolitical partners […]
Tim Cook on shaping the future of Apple
Markets tend to love businesses run by larger-than-life founders or CEOs and ascribe a premium to them. Whilst we at Marcellus do recognise the rub off effects of a passionate leader on the rest of the organisation, being long term investors, we have explicit focus on succession planning that can underpin the sustainability of the […]
All Hail King: How Rolex Exemplifies a True Luxury Brand Like No Other
In our Global Compounders Portfolio, we own Hermes, the French luxury handbag brand. This blog is about what is likely the only other brand that measures up as a true luxury brand – Rolex, which unfortunately is privately owned. The blog talks about Rolex’s history, what makes it a true luxury brand and takes a […]
Nerds, Ninjas & Neutrons: the Story of NEST (Nuclear Emergency Support Team)
Authors: Jay Tilden (Deputy Undersecretary for Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation, US Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration) & Dallas Boyd (senior advisor, US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Counterterrorism and Counterproliferation) Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (https://thebulletin.org/premium/2023-03/nerds-ninjas-and-neutrons-the-story-of-the-nuclear-emergency-support-team/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email) This long essay by two American civil servants specialising in nuclear counterterrorism seems destined […]
A Simple Approach to Valuing Financial Services Companies
Valuing lenders and insurance companies is tricky as the well accepted principle of discounting future cash flows does not work for Financial Services companies. These companies work under a regulatory framework which requires them to maintain a minimum capitalization level and also reinvest a large part of their earnings. Technically these firms have no/negative free […]
India’s High Corporate Tax Rate is Holding Back Corporate Capex
Courtesy the face-off between China and the United States, India has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to become the factory of the world for knowledge-intensive light industrial manufacturing in sectors such as electronics, pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals. However, India’s competitiveness is hindered by an effective corporate tax rate that is 4%-points higher than America’s or China’s. This […]
Outsized Earnings Growth Alongside Falling Share Prices
In this month’s newsletter, we ask whether the Rising Giants (RG) stocks were ‘richly’ valued when we bought them? Using an earnings growth of 20% (5% for the terminal year) and cost of capital of 12%, the median longevity implied by the then prevailing market prices for the RG portfolio rose from 8 years as at FY18-end […]
It’s not a funnel, it’s a filter
We at Marcellus have great admiration for the team at Ritholtz Wealth Management, an American financial advisory firm, primarily because of their ability to articulate their philosophy and approach through their prolific writing of numerous blogs and books. We found this article by their CEO resonate with us, as much like them we believe our […]
IPL 2023: MS Dhoni stands firm… Sandeep Sharma holds his nerve
With MS Dhoni playing in what appears to be his final IPL, we have one last chance to appreciate one of the master strategists of our age. As Vinayakk Mohanarangan explains in this short piece “So much has changed, but MS Dhoni taking a chase deep and playing with the mental makeup of the bowler hasn’t.” […]
Illeism: The ancient trick to help you think more wisely
David Robson, a science writer and author of ‘The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life’, says that ‘illeism’ is a proven technique which has proven to be very useful for him. So, what is illeism? “…illeism is the practice of talking about oneself in the third person, rather than the first person. […]
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