I was at the Reuters India Investment Summit last week. The usual suspects were in full attendance – Akhil Gupta of Blackstone, K.V.Kamat, ICICI Bank, Manisha Girotra of UBS besides some irregulars like Arun Shourie of BJP, Arvind Virmani the chief economic adviser to MoF, Suresh Senapati of Wipro, G.V.Prasad of Dr.Reddy’s etc.
Here is the report from ET. I tuned my ears to Akhil Gupta of Blackstone who wanted more policy freedom as it was facilitating “crooks” and not strategists. He found support from the investment fraternity as well. "The flow price rule is a stumbling block," said Vedika Bhandarkar, of JPMorgan. "In a falling market like India, if you have a six month rule you can't do a deal. That rule, we expect to be relaxed soon."
I allowed myself a smirk. Aren’t these the same guys that clamored for the rule to stay when prices were soaring? They enjoyed the flow price rule and were valuing on the basis of last 6 months average price and forcing company management to accept it because the regulations said so. Now when the prices have caved in, it hurts them. Now Akhil Gupta worries the rules favor a crook, while he goofed up on his choice of investment in Gokaldas exports and (Ushodaya enterprises that went see-saw) the like. Blackstone, Gupta’s employer is famous for big time goofing up. Remember their $36 billion acquisition of Equity Office Properties Trust from Sam Zell way back in Nov.2006 when mortgage prices were peaking? In less than a year, they realized their blunder and started stripping it off its priced assets. But its CEO Stephen Schwarzman smartly went public and cashed out before the serial guffaw took its toll on his personal holdings. And Gupta is squealing about crooks outside!
Here is the report from ET. I tuned my ears to Akhil Gupta of Blackstone who wanted more policy freedom as it was facilitating “crooks” and not strategists. He found support from the investment fraternity as well. "The flow price rule is a stumbling block," said Vedika Bhandarkar, of JPMorgan. "In a falling market like India, if you have a six month rule you can't do a deal. That rule, we expect to be relaxed soon."
I allowed myself a smirk. Aren’t these the same guys that clamored for the rule to stay when prices were soaring? They enjoyed the flow price rule and were valuing on the basis of last 6 months average price and forcing company management to accept it because the regulations said so. Now when the prices have caved in, it hurts them. Now Akhil Gupta worries the rules favor a crook, while he goofed up on his choice of investment in Gokaldas exports and (Ushodaya enterprises that went see-saw) the like. Blackstone, Gupta’s employer is famous for big time goofing up. Remember their $36 billion acquisition of Equity Office Properties Trust from Sam Zell way back in Nov.2006 when mortgage prices were peaking? In less than a year, they realized their blunder and started stripping it off its priced assets. But its CEO Stephen Schwarzman smartly went public and cashed out before the serial guffaw took its toll on his personal holdings. And Gupta is squealing about crooks outside!
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