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| Patrick Bowring: Looking back |
Auction house bowring's turned
one in April. Its Deputy Chairman Patrick Bowring speaks
to BT on a year's experiences.
How has your performance thus far been?
We have held three auctions so far. The total
value of goods sold at these auctions exceeds $1 million.
Do you have a fix on what Indian buyers
like?
They
like the progressives or older works like Husain. The Bengal school
is a favourite. (As are) Tanjores. Good pictures fetch good prices.
For instance, we sold three paintings for around Rs 20 lakh. Nicholas
Roerich's Kanchenjanga-Himalayan Series for Rs 20 lakh, a piece
by V.S. Gaitonde for Rs 23 lakh-matching the record for a work by
the artist-and Hemen Mazumdar's Rose or Thorn for Rs 18 lakh.
What kind of competition do you face in
India?
We have an advantage over Christies and Sotheby's
because we are an Indian company based in India. Sellers are attracted
to us because it is convenient. They can deal in rupees, there are
no shipping costs, and they know they are getting a good deal because
we work on a commission basis. Furthermore, many things over 100
years old can't be exported from India.
Why should sellers choose you over international
auctioneers?
We offer objects to the widest possible audience-national
and international. Young artists, for instance, cannot afford to
send their art abroad.
What are the trends you have lately seen
in the Indian market?
It is maturing but it is also still very young.
We get a lot of inquiries from stamp and coin collectors. We haven't
been able to test that market yet. We hope to specialise and maybe
even get into vintage cars, collectibles like toys and typewriters
in the next five years.
-Abha
Bakaya
THE WALL
The Feet-Of-Clay Club
A recent Big-Apple scandal threatens
to blow the lid off not-on activities of leading investment banks.
From
auditing (remember Enron and Andersen) to investment banking is
but a short step. Merrill Lynch & Co, one of the big three bulge
bracket investment banks, is under fire from New York Attorney General
Eliot Spitzer who alleges that it produced flattering research reports
on internet companies with an eye on drumming up some business for
its investment banking operations.
Spitzer says a Merrill Lynch policy linked
analyst compensation to contribution to the firm's investment banking
business. And e-mail records in the possession of Spitzer show that
Henry Blodget, Merrill Lynch's star internet analyst privately dismissing
as 'crap' companies he was praising in research reports.
Spitzer is reported to have issued subpoenas
to other Wall Street biggies such as Credit Suisse First Boston,
Salomon Smith Barney, and JP Morgan to turn over communication records.
And attorney Jacob Zamansky has filed an action
seeking $10 million from Salomon Smith Barney and its telecom analyst
Jack Grubman for his advocacy of the stock of the now-bankrupt Global
Crossing. Zamansky alleges that Grubman issued glowing research
reports on Global Crossing till the very end in an effort to keep
the stock steady-a result of an investment banking relationship
with Global Crossing.
The Microsoft anti-trust case forced market
leaders to seriously look at issues related to how they compete.
The Enron affair forced auditors to review their code, and companies
to take the trouble to explain their financial statements to shareholders.
In an ideal world, the fire the investment banking business is coming
under should force firms to reassess the 'independence' of their
broking, research, and banking ops. Or reinforce that Chinese wall.
-Roshni Jayakar
MAKING TRACKS
Catching Up With The Swoosh
The former India head, and now
global marketing chief of Reebok, thinks radical chic is the way
to play catch-up with Nike.
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| Reebok's Pant: Playing it cool |
It
may sound outrageous, but we're going after Nike,'' grins Muktesh
'Micky' Pant, Chief Marketing Officer, Reebok. His reference is
to the company's new marketing campaign, 'Sounds & Rhythms of
Sports', an attempt to capture emerging urban trends and appeal
to young, urban males everywhere. If Nike isn't quaking in its Prestos,
it is probably because Reebok is number three internationally, after
Swoosh and Adidas. Besides, isn't this what Nike has traditionally
done? Pant's next quote reiterates that suspicion. ''(Sports-fashion
trends) start with Afro-American youth and then cut into the mainline
market.''
So, brand Reebok is immersing itself with this
audience's inner-city moorings in the hip-hop culture of rap music,
graffiti, loose dressing, the works. Reebok's new range RBK (for
Reebok) is completely street-inspired and its promos pair professional
rappers with sports celebs. NBA star Allen Iverson with Jadakiss.
Tennis supergirl Venus Williams with Missy Elliot.
If you're fashion-driven, goes the thinking
of the Reebok top brass, you can do no wrong. So, the company is
busy drawing up the celeb-invitee list for its fourth high-brow,
high-profile Reebok Party in London this June, its first outside
the US market. ''Creating buzz with opinion leaders is creating
demand,'' says Pant. Reebok is increasingly burning its promo-spend
on such 'buzz' events, moving away from trying to communicate directly
with ad-weary consumers. Maybe, we'll see a Reebok party in Delhi
soon!
-Shailesh Dobhal
EASY ALLIES
When Reality Meets Virtuality
If it succeeds, Hindustan Times-Sify.com
alliance could be the model for future online-offline media partnerships.
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| Shobhana Bhartia: Strategic deal |
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| Sify's R. Ramaraj: Dual alliance |
It
is the first of its kind, and should it work, we could well see
more. The facts: Sify.com (Sify) and Hindustan Times (ht) have forged
a strategic alliance that will promote and share content, even cross-sell
ads. ''This alliance will help advertisers leverage consumer overlap
between English language print media and the net,'' says Rajan Kohli,
Executive President, Hindustan Times Ltd. ht gains from Sify.com's
3-million strong site-visitors base in terms of visibility for its
print edition, and from aggressive promos at the ISP's 600 I-Way
internet browsing centres. Sify gains from ht's not inconsiderable
skills in the news-content business, something that will help its
horizontal portal. Why, ht could even help Sify establish itself
in the northern markets, where its presence has traditionally been
weak.
To advertisers, the alliance will offer combined
space-print and online, or online alone (Sify.com and Hindustantimes.com)-at
discounts that could be as high as 30 per cent. And both ht and
Sify will sell space for the other at existing stand-alone rates.
The Times of India Group has a similar offline-online deal going,
but that's restricted to classifieds. If the alliance succeeds,
it could spawn more such cross-media partnerships. Watch this space.
-Vinod Mahanta
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| Desai's smile belies his team's loss |
PLAY HARD
The Games Fund Managers Play
AMCs and distributors work to know each other
better through, surprise surprise, play.
In the end, the largest
grin belonged to Shitin Desai, the Vice Chairman of DSP Merrill
Lynch and the captain of the losing side. The details: the Desai-led
Distributors 11 (comprising senior execs from the companies that
distribute mutual fund schemes) lost to the asset management company
(AMC) heads team captained by Naval Bir Kumar of Standard Chartered
Mutual Fund in the second DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund Cricket
Cup at the Police Gym Grounds in Mumbai on April 14. ''Such a match
goes a long way in strengthening our bonds with distributors and
deepening of our relationship,'' says Alok Vajpeyi, the Chief Operating
Officer of DSP Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, who played for
the AMC team. Now, if the fund managers can just translate their
on-field performance into some gains on the market...
-Moinak Mitr
DABUR
Dabur Déjà Vu
Months after CEO Ninu Khanna left, the Dabur
Family Council could well take the easy way out in the hunt for
a successor.
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V.C. Burman: "I don't matter"
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At
a Davidoff do in Delhi in April, Dabur Chairman V.C. Burman, puffing
away at a Habanos, told this correspondent: ''Look, I don't matter
anymore.'' The 65-year-old Burman was just mouthing the Dabur line
on corporate governance and professionalisation, one that the company,
79 per cent of which is still owned by the Burmans, discovered post
a 1997 session with consulting firm McKinsey. Instead the Burmans
have been content to form a Family Council-this comprises the 10
men in the family-which meets every quarter to discuss the business
interests of the family. At least one FC member sits on the board
of each Dabur Company; four Burmans are on the board of flagship
Dabur India Ltd (DIL).
Still, finding a successor to CEO Ninu Khanna
(he left in 2001-end citing personal reasons) hasn't been easy for
the broad of Dabur India and the FC. Khanna may have helped the
Burmans implement McKinsey's recommendations about exiting non-core
areas-DIL's post-tax profits increased from Rs 40.1 crore in 1998-99
to Rs 78.5 crore in 2000-01-but 2001 was a bad year, with the company
growing a mere 2.3 per cent in terms of sales in the first three
quarters. And Khanna's departure may have had something to do with
the sudden demise of the then Chairman G.C. Burman, to whom the
former was reportedly close, in November 2001.
DIL and the Family Council, the buzz goes,
now seem to have found their man, P.D. Narang, the company's Director,
Corporate Affairs, and a family confidant. That's evident in his
response to Dabur's unrelated diversifications: ''When Dabur entered
these businesses, the opportunities were just right.'' Perfect.
-Moinak Mitra
CONSTRUCT
Tools For Hire
Suddenly, construction equipment banking becomes
hot.
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Quipo's Kanoria: C-banking
|
For a two-year-old
organisation with a largely untested business model, Quipo, a construction
equipment bank set up by SREI International Finance, hasn't done
too badly for itself. In 1999, the bank had equipment worth Rs 6
crore. Today, with the construction equipment rental business clipping
along at 25 per cent, Quipo is investing Rs 150 crore in 1,500 units
of equipment and warehousing facilities in Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai.
''In the US, the construction equipment rental business is worth
over $25 billion (Rs 120,000 crore) and in the UK, 85 per cent of
all construction takes place through rented equipment,'' says Sunil
Kanoria, Chairman and Managing Director, Quipo, which closed 2001-02
with Rs 8 crore in revenues. Quipo's success has spawned a wave.
Punj Lloyd entered the business in April 2000, and L&T is reportedly
planning its entry. ''The gestation period is short and the investment
can be recovered in a year,'' says Kanoria. That's the reason for
the rush.
-Swati Prasad
BPL
How BPL Telecom Hopes To Do A Cisco
Telephone maker BPL Telecom spies an opportunity
in the just-born VoIP market.
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BPL's Shah: Watch out Cisco
|
For
a managing director who has seen his company's turnover dip to Rs
150 crore in 2001-02 from Rs 192 crore the previous year, Ranjit
Shah of BPL Telecom is remarkably sanguine. Just to avoid the confusion
apt to rise when there is talk of BPL Telecom, this isn't the cellular
services company that merged with the Birla-Tata-AT&T combine.
It is the privately held telecom arm of the BPL Group that makes
telephones.
Shah's optimism comes from the company's development
of India's first indigenous VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol)
platform, SNX 8500. ''Like most companies, we became complacent
during the good times,'' confesses Shah. ''Now, we have stepped
up our R&D efforts and want to focus on both the domestic and
the US market with this integrated platform.'' The company hopes
to leverage its leadership position in the domestic market for EPABX
systems to market its new offering. Its selling proposition? Cost;
the company claims that a 50-node SNX 8500 package would cost Rs
29.85 lakh, lower than what it would cost to get a comparable system
from Nortel (Rs 34.32 lakh) and Cisco (Rs 61.2 lakh). The going
won't be easy. Says Dhananjay Ganjoo, National Sales Manager, Nortel
Networks, India: ''Cost comparisons are inappropriate as it involves
features being offered. Nortel's offerings are feature-rich. BPL's
offering is based on primitive circuit-switching, whereas, the world
over, packet-switching is the norm. BPL will have to evolve its
products a lot to address both the domestic and international markets.''
Touche.
-Venkatesha Babu
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