Interest in India is Coming Back: Ajay Piramal

 

 

 

Answer: Let me clarify on that. Yes we've invested in several sectors but these are not just investments where we are playing a passive role. In every investment that we have made, we are playing an active role in it. 

 

 

Answer: As I said invest and actively run business. After we sold our business to Abbott in 2010 we've actually opened up three new areas of businesses. One area we've invested in is in financial services where we made a significant investment in Shriram Group.

 

Besides that, we also acquired a business in the US and now run it which is in information and data. That's the other new area where we've opened up. And the third business which is not part of Piramal Enterprises is real estate.

 

 

Answer: Information business  is about collecting data and converting it into insight or information. We do analytics on it and then we sell that. It is only in health care.

 

 

Answer: Yes.

 

 

Answer: I think we've now looked at these areas and I think these are the right areas for us in terms of growth. There is a lot of potential for growth, whether it's financial services or information business or pharmaceutical space. Also I think we are in the right geographies. Our mix is right. Today our mix is more skewed in terms of businesses outside India. We of course have business in India. But besides that we have businesses in the US, Germany and Europe as well.

 

 

Answer: That's the sort of thing that we are doing in the financial services where we look at structured investments and we think that because we can deploy a reasonable amount of capital and because we can understand what risk is. Actually that's what gives us good returns.

 

 

Answer: We are not looking at any other new areas. We will be in these areas only by and large. There might be some small things here and there.

 

 

Answer: We don't invest in our own investments. As I said we have a business in real estate which is a different company and we have a business in glass packaging as well. We don't make private investments. 

 

 

Answer: I was just thinking it's the nineteenth year that I've come so I'm a veteran now.

 

 

Answer: The mood at one time was very high. In the early 2000s, even in the mid-2000s. It was India everywhere and I remember their campaign and there was a lot of interest in India. That time people wanted to look at India. 

 

But, in the last two three years there was no interest. But this year I find that there is a lot of interest. I'm told that the meetings of the Finance Minister are all chock a block. So yes I think India is coming back and if you look at the world I mean they're not very good areas to invest for global investors besides of course the US which is doing exceedingly well. It is only India which stands out cause most of the other developing countries they have one issue or the other. Europe has their own challenges.

 

 

Answer: You know there's a lot of expectation from India and I think it's for us to make it work. If we can make it work then there is a lot for us. But as we've seen often in the past that India has done well only to disappoint. I hope that this time it is different and we have a longer run of good performance. If we can do that then there's a lot of capital in the world and all this quantitative easing that has been going on for several years. Actually there's lot of liquidity and liquidity wants to find good homes where they can get a good return. We have that opportunity and I hope that we don't miss it.

 

 

Answer: I think all are looking at investing in India. All want to but they want to see something more concrete. They've been disappointed in the past so they don't want that to happen. And I think that what I hear from the talks and what the government is speaking, this time Prime Minister and his team are very committed to making that happen.

 

 

Answer: I don't know. We pay a lot of importance to the budget but I think we should keep the budget just like most other countries. But it doesn't happen in India, everybody looks to the budget. 

 

 

Answer: I think it's really that we just need to implement things that we have been talking about.

 

 

Answer: Government should expand in terms of investment. Also I think what they're re-emphasizing on is governance in institutions that are run by the government. I think that is very important. I mean look at what some of the banks in the public sector. There NPAs are north of 20%. You can't have that and survive. We need to look at these fundamental things which have never been addressed for so many decades.