How ‘conman’ Sherpuria went from waiter in Gujarat to fixer for top civil servants including CBI officers
As the polarisation of wealth in India ramps up, so do the incentives to become a fraudster. Whilst most people we know have been at the receiving end of phone calls from the ‘boiler rooms’ in Jamtara or Indore, it is the fraud that is being perpetrated on the elite that is even more interesting. […]
Wealth Compounding = High ROCEs + Reinvestment of Profits
Starting this month, we are rolling out a joint newsletter across our four domestic PMS Products. In this edition, we revisit the basic principles underlying Marcellus’ investment philosophy i.e. a firm’s ability to generate Free Cashflows (FCF) and grow them at a healthy rate sustainably over the long term. We take a look at: a) […]
Sachin Tendulkar at 50 – The stranger we kept calling by his first name
As the defining sports icon of our generation hits his most important half century, several excellent cricket writers have produced some outstanding essays over the past fortnight. Alagappan Muthu’s essay on Sachin Tendulkar at 50 is close to the top-of-this-heap. Part of the reason Muthu’s essay is so good is because it reminds us of […]
op ways to be a super schmoozer
Whilst most people in Marcellus have excellent social skills, there are some of us in Marcellus who get sweaty palms at the thought of schmoozing and networking. Pilita Clark of the FT offers some dos & don’ts for such reluctant networkers. Let’s start with the dos. Here is what good networkers do: “…they prepare. They think […]
Why books don’t work
The title might sound a bit outrageous but for all the virtues bandied about reading books, many of us struggle to get through them. Here we are talking about non-fiction books with heavy insightful messages to take away from. Some of us are naturally tuned to absorbing the material quite easily. And for some of […]
The Contradictions of Sam Altman, AI Crusader
We have been featuring articles on the rapid developments in Artificial Intelligence and its contrasting implications for humanity. This one is about the human being closely associated with the development – Sam Altman. Altman is the founder and CEO of OpenAI, the now for-profit company that owns ChatGPT, the generative AI tool that has taken […]
Could Panaji’s waste revolution be a blueprint for other Indian cities?
Anyone who lives in a large Indian city is accustomed to driving past mountains of rubbish which often exceed the height of a 50-storey building. The earthmovers and trucks working on these mountains of rubbish – commonly called ‘landfills’ – look like ants trying to move colossal lumps of garbage. Many of us who have […]
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 […]
For more content on our strategy, visit the archives GO TO ARCHIVES