Interviews

If there is one person I’ve known in my life who can most easily and sensibly guide people on wealth as on health, it is PV Subramanyam (or Subra as he is popularly known). When he is not advising people on how to manage their financial lives sensibly, you can find him running or cycling long distances.

Subra is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and a financial trainer by profession. He writes frequently on his blog, Subramoney, and has also authored a book on wealth creation called ‘Retire Rich Invest Rs 40 a Day’.

Subra believes to make money, you do not need too many ideas. You need simple ideas and discipline. Simple ideas, and many of them, are what he shared recently with me in his interview for Safal Niveshak.

Before I get into our discussion, let me share that this was the most unusual interview I have been a part of in my life. The reason being the venue me and Subra decided upon, which was on a hill here in Navi Mumbai that lies midway between our homes.

We met at the base of the hill at 7 AM day before Diwali, walked all the way up, prayed at the temple on the top, and then sat at the backside of the temple, roadside, for this interview.

Let me now go straight to what Subra shared with me. Like all interviews I have shared with you in the past, I have broken this one also into a few parts so that you get a chance to absorb the ideas better, and also practice patience while waiting for the next part. 🙂

Let’s me start with the interview now.

[Read more…] about Simple Ideas on Wealth Creation, the Subramoney Way – Part 1

Disclaimer: Please note that the views expressed in this interview are those of Mr. Basant Maheshwari and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Safal Niveshak.

• Also Read – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Safal Niveshak (SN): One of the problems that new or small investors face is that they can’t really get their heads around valuation. It seems so complex. A lot of the terminology is complex, and so are the concepts. How can valuations be made easier? How have you made it easier? Or can it not be made easier?

Basant Maheshwari (BM): There are two aspects to valuation. One is to evaluate the longevity of the business, which is what Buffett talks about – the business quality, moats, etc. But since we can’t get numbers on them, we don’t do it.

Now, while starting a valuation sheet, how many people ask this question on the first row of the excel sheet – “Is this company going to remain in business by, say, 2020?” Most people don’t do!

[Read more…] about Interview with Basant Maheshwari – Part 4

Disclaimer: Please note that the views expressed in this interview are those of Mr. Basant Maheshwari and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Safal Niveshak.

• Also Read – Part 1 | Part 2

Safal Niveshak (SN): Do you believe in the importance of maintaining an investment checklist? If yes, what are the most important points on your checklist?

Basant Maheshwari (BM): Let’s take an example of, say, a company like ITC. The first question I will ask is, “Is it cyclical or non-cyclical?” It’s not cyclical. So, basically it means that you can predict.

I assume that I don’t know anything about ITC. Now, I will open the company’s annual reports and see the fourth year figure. So if I’m in FY14, I will see how much revenue it earned in FY10.

From FY10 to FY14, in four years, it has got to double. If the revenue has not doubled in four years, then I don’t get excited. I am just looking at revenue at the moment. I have not yet dabbled with profits.

I will then look at the return on equity (ROE). ROE should be more than 25%. Then, if I find the ROE to be above 25%, I will look at the dividend yield.

[Read more…] about Interview with Basant Maheshwari – Part 3

Disclaimer: Please note that the views expressed in this interview are those of Mr. Basant Maheshwari and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Safal Niveshak.

• Click here to read Part 1 of the interview.

Safal Niveshak (SN): Compared to when you started investing in 1992, the sheer amount of irrelevant information faced by investors is truly staggering today. How can investors trapped by irrelevant information make independent investment decisions? What are the 4-5 factors investors can use to improve the quality of their decision making?

Basant Maheshwari (BM): You have to look at a piece of information and ask, “What difference does it make to the company that I own?” Like, I bought Pantaloon and made money. That’s well-documented everywhere.

When Pantaloon was doing its books, it used to carry inventory at sales minus gross margin. Normally, you have to do at cost or market value, whichever is lower. So there was a buffer there.

So if the inventory should’ve been valued at Rs 40 crore, they used to value it at Rs 60 or 70 crore. There was a lot of hue and cry about this. People said, “They’re overvaluing it!”

Value Investing Workshop in Bangalore on 1st Nov. 2014 (Sat). Register here to claim an early bird discount – https://t.co/VoXkYaHm9q

— Vishal Khandelwal (@safalniveshak) September 12, 2014

At that point, I was also into this confusion as to how to evaluate this inventory part of Pantaloon. Then, one day as I was thinking about it, I thought of calculating how much it worked to. It came to about Rs 20-30 crore. Compared to this, the company’s market cap was about Rs 1,000 crore. The company was making more than Rs 20 crore in quarterly profit. So anybody would have said, “What difference does it make anyways? Pantaloon can write it off in one quarter.”

[Read more…] about Interview with Basant Maheshwari – Part 2

I was recently in Kolkata for my Value Investing workshop, where I received an amazing response. Beyond my expectations, the number of people who attended the same exceeded the count in Mumbai and Delhi as well. And I’m sure they found some value in the Workshop, as their smiles show. 🙂

My next workshop is in Bangalore on 1st November (Saturday). If you are interested to join, click here to register now.

Anyways, during my Kolkata trip, I also met up with Mr. Basant Maheshwari, founder of The Equity Desk and author of The Thoughtful Investor, for an interview for Safal Niveshak. Given that we talked for almost two hours, I have broken up the interview in several parts.

Before sharing my notes from the interview, please note that the views expressed herein are those of Mr. Basant Maheshwari and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Safal Niveshak.

Over to Mr. Maheshwari.

[Read more…] about Interview with Basant Maheshwari – Part 1