Stock Idea:: Harrisons Malayalam

I've bought into this stock. It owns large plantations in South India, is part of the RPG group. South india is where I see property prices zooming in the future- it's far safer and has a much better political environment as compared to the rest of India. The stock is trading at a P/E of 2.2 inspite of this being an asset heavy business. The entire business is presently worth about 150 crores.
..What do you think it should be worth? Visit their website to see their acres under cultivation.

Death is Nothing at all

Death is nothing at all

I have only slipped away into the next room

I am I and you are you

Whatever we were to each other

That we are still

Call me by my old familiar name

Speak to me in the easy way you always used

Put no difference into your tone

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow

Laugh as we always laughed

At the little jokes we always enjoyed together

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me

Let my name be ever the household word that it always was

Let it be spoken without effort

Without the ghost of a shadow in it

Life means all that it ever meant

It is the same as it ever was

There is absolute unbroken continuity

What is death but a negligible accident?

Why should I be out of mind

Because I am out of sight?

I am waiting for you for an interval

Somewhere very near

Just around the corner

All is well.

Nothing is past; nothing is lost

One brief moment and all will be as it was before

How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!



Canon Henry Scott-Holland, 1847-1918, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral



'The King of Terrors', a sermon on death delivered in St Paul's Cathedral on Whitsunday 1910, while the body of King Edward VII was lying in state at Westminster:

published in Facts of the Faith, 1919

another milestone

Reached another milestone in my portfolio. First stock to touch 100% gains - ORG Informatics. As I write this, it is up about 104%. Cheers,

Portfolio Milestone

One of my stocks has crossed the 75% mark - a new milestone post crossing the 50% mark. It's about 86% higher than my acquisition price right now. Not bad for the past 4 months.

I'm working on a new idea. Have started buying and will post details once I have bought as much as I need. It's in a sector which I have not yet invested in but one that is close to my heart.

Cheers,

new stock buy - sonata software

Entered a new stock - Sonata Software.

Reasons to buy

Market cap - 360crores ~ 85mn USD

strong promoters - Raheja group
strong U.S. presence
strong presence in the indian market
strong partnerships with tier 1 vendors - oracle, msft, mercury
CMM level 5 - prime candidate for a buyer
closely held by few large shareholder groups - promoters, management, ESOP making strategic moves easy.
just acquired a large european IT company - 50.1% making their numbers a part of the parent
good cash flow - quarterly profit of about 10 crores - 2.5mn USD or about 10mn USD a year excluding growth.

I'm up 50% on the rest of my portfolio from the past 6 months (excluding Astra Microwave which has not yet moved).

Lets see how Sonata contributes.

'Naukri, twice as big as Monsterindia'

A nice letter by Sanjeev who is the founder of Naukri.com proving quite conclusively that it's twice as big as Monster India. Good one.
Letter to Rediff

Interesting article on business 2.0

about Immigration. Read the full article here

My Fav. part

As most everyone who pays into Social Security knows, this country (and all others in the developed world) is facing a retirement crisis. It starts this year, as the oldest Baby Boomers - also dubbed the "pig-in-a-python" demographic - hit 60 and decide that playing a round of golf every day beats sitting in a 6 ft. by 6 ft. cube.

Faced with far more retirees than workers, we have two options: up the retirement age to keep workers slogging away until their 80th birthdays; or, let the world's youth do the work while paying our Social Security along the way. In return, we get to spend our golden years drinking Pina Coladas in Palm Beach. Which do you think we'll pick?

My fav. portion from the Premji interview in NYT

I think when you combine the line below with the fact that the need for engineers is bound to grow both from product development as well as from technical support due to technology's prevalence in our day to day life and the expansion of the market across the globe, the shortfall then sinks in.

Of course, I still feel what we have to improve is the quality of engineers in India as that is still way below that of those being produced in the United States.

Excerpted

The important thing about outsourcing or global sourcing is that it becomes a very powerful tool to leverage talent, improve productivity and reduce work cycles. The West is not producing enough engineers. The United States will produce 75,000 engineers this year; they will produce more sports therapists than engineers. Germany, the great engineering power of Europe, will produce 35,000 engineers this year; they will produce more architects than engineers. Western companies want access to Indian talent, that is why they outsource, that is why they come to India to set up base.

Good Day it is

Two good articles out today

A Nice Interview of Azim Premji by the NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/business/16interview.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

A good Article by Guy Kawasaki on the new 'Art of Distribution'
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/09/the_art_of_dist_1.html

Both must-reads

Stock Picks and Results

Stocks I hold

ORG Informatics - Telecom SI - average buy price 78
Geometric Software - CAD CAM Specialist - average buy price 81
AStra Microwave - Telecom and Defense products - Average buy 166

any opinions out there?