India Companies in The Global 2000

Forbes released its annual list of the Global 2000 this week with a number of Indian companies on the list. The largest Indian company (Reliance Industries) checks in at #193. What's interesting is the top 8 out of 10 Indian companies are all "old industry" (steel, utilities, oil and gas), with only two communication comapnies representing New India. I suspect this will change in 5 years, but for now the old industries still rule.

Global 2000 table (Top Indian companies shown)

Rank	Company	Country	Industry	Sales ($bil)	Profits ($bil)	Assets ($bil)	Market Value ($bil)
193	Reliance Industries	India	Oil & Gas Operations	26.07	2.79	30.67	89.29
198	Oil & Natural Gas	India	Oil & Gas Operations	18.90	4.11	33.79	54.11
219	State Bank of India Group	India	Banking	15.77	1.47	188.56	33.29
303	Indian Oil	India	Oil & Gas Operations	42.68	1.82	25.39	16.36
374	Icici Bank	India	Banking	9.84	0.64	91.07	29.85
411	NTPC	India	Utilities	7.84	1.60	20.34	41.57
647	Steel Authority of India	India	Materials	7.88	1.45	8.05	26.37
738	Tata Steel	India	Materials	5.83	0.97	11.48	14.63
826	Bharti Airtel	India	Telecommunications Services	4.26	0.94	6.61	39.16
846	Reliance Communications	India	Telecommunications Services	3.13	0.65	13.08	29.63
927	Tata Consultancy Svcs	India	Software & Services	4.32	0.97	3.03	21.38
949	HDFC-Housing Devel	India	Banking	1.49	0.40	16.97	19.07
961	Larsen & Toubro	India	Capital Goods	4.68	0.52	5.72	24.94
967	Bharat Petroleum	India	Oil & Gas Operations	22.77	0.50	8.67	4.16
1012	Bharat Heavy Electricals	India	Capital Goods	3.99	0.56	5.17	27.92
1040	Infosys Technologies	India	Software & Services	3.21	0.89	3.08	22.09
1093	HDFC Bank	India	Banking	1.96	0.27	21.09	12.87
1102	Wipro	India	Software & Services	3.47	0.68	3.26	15.87
1111	Tata Motors	India	Capital Goods	7.27	0.50	5.77	6.75

To see the entire India Forbes list click here

Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and K.P. Singh in the top 10 richest list of Forbes

By Vipin Agnihotri

It’s official. Four Indian industrialists, namely, Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and property tycoon K.P. Singh are among the top 10 richest individuals in the world, according to a survey conducted by Forbes magazine.

In my opinion, a phenomenal surge in the sensex last year took them to the top of the totem pole. Point to be noted here is that India has the maximum number in the top 10 followed by US, which has two. On the other hand, Germany, Mexico, Sweden and Russia have one each.

It is worthwhile pointing that in 2007 there was only one Indian, Lakshmi Mittal in the top 10. According to Forbes survey, Warren Buffett, the legendary investor with a $62-billion net worth, is the world’s richest man. Buffett dislodged Microsoft chief Bill Gates ($58 billion), who tumbled to the third spot after a hostile bid for Yahoo that sent the software giant’s stocks plunging by more than 15 per cent.

The second spot has gone to Mexican telecom czar Carlos Slim Helu who is worth $60 billion. After Gates, the pecking order has three Indians: Lakshmi Mittal ($45 billion), Mukesh Ambani ($43 billion) and Anil Ambani ($42 billion).

Although, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Power Ltd made a torrid start on the bourses but interestingly Anil Ambani is the biggest gainer among all the billionaires. In terms of statistic, his net worth has soared $23.8 billion.

Talking about his brother Mukesh Ambani, Mukesh’s fortune has risen $22.9 billion since last year and he is the world’s second biggest gainer in dollar terms. DLF chairman K.P. Singh, who figures in the eighth place, is worth $30 billion.

Forbes used number of parameters to arrive at the wealth of each billionaire. The pivotal factor here is that stock prices were calculated using market prices and exchange rates as of market closings on February 11. In addition, Forbes also went through holdings of publicly traded companies, private investments, real estate and art collections.

According to experts, rise of Indians, particularly the two Ambanis and Singh, on the rich list is not surprising especially when one takes into consideration the fact that their individual businesses have performed admirably over the past year.

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10 Interesting India vs China Numbers

I have always been fascinated with the so-called culture race between India and China. In fact we produced a short, humorous India versus China video about the rivalry. Publicly, neither country takes the competition seriously but I know from observation in both countries, the comparison ignites fierce debate. Therefore, allow me to take a look at the numbers both curious and serious.

1. 2007 Forbes List of Asia’s Fab 50 Companies

Forbes list of Asia’s "top" fifty public companies showcases 7 Chinese companies and twelve from India. Interestingly, only four of the 12 companies are technology related.

India	China
12	7

2. 2006 GDP Survey using Purchasing Power Parity

India cashes in at an impressive $4.158 trillion (PPP) but China doubles up on India with an astounding $9.984 trillion

India	China
$4.158 Trillion	$9.984 trillion

3. 2007 KPMG report on Cross Border Acquisitions

Indian companies did 32 outbound deals during the first half of 2007 while China, lagged behind with a meager 14 deals.

India	China
32	14

4. GDP in Services

While a larger proportion of people are employed in services in China versus India, the amount of contribution to GDP is interesting because India’s share is 50% while China’s is only 33%. This is probably due to China having a more productive manufacturing industry.

Share of GDP in Services

India	China
50%	33%

5. India versus China Internet Users

In January 2007, ComScore Networks announced that India, China and Russia experienced the highest audience growth year over year. They measured unique users and determined China to be far ahead of India in number of users.

India	China
51,107,000	111,757,000

6. India versus China Billionaires

According to Forbes list of Billionaires India has more billionaires then China and they are a lot wealthier. So what does this mean, only that it’s easier to become extremely wealthy in India despite a weaker GDP. Moreover, India’s rich are richer than China’s despite China’s economic advantages. By the way, we recently we did a story about a record number of India's millionaires .

The Top India and China Billionaires

Rank	Name	Citizenship	Age	Net Worth ($Bil)	Residence
14	Mukesh Ambani	India	49	20.1	India
390	Yan Cheung	China	49	2.4	Hong Kong

India	China
32	20

7. India vs. China Mobile Phone Usage

As we have explored earlier, the number of internet users in China far exceeds India although the number of CDMA users in India exceeds that of China. As for total mobile users as of July 2007, China is the largest mobile market in the world with 491 million subscribers to India's 189 million.

India	China
189 million	491 million

8. India vs. China Median Age

A definite India advantage given that half the population is under 25. The demographic is a large competitive advantage 10 – 30 years from now when an aging China’s one-child policy will limit the amount of workers able to work during this period.

India	China
25	33

9. India vs. China Literacy Rates

A big competitive disadvantage for India as China by far leads in this category. There simply is no excuse for India to lag behind here and doing so for much longer will cripple India’s economy. I’ll give the communists one advantage over its rival democracies, the literacy rates tend to be higher in the communists countries. Even the communist controlled areas in India enjoy a much higher literacy rate then the democratic areas.

India	China
60%	91%

10. India vs. China Poverty

Both China and India have high numbers of people in poverty conditions. I think the number for China and India is much higher than stated here, but it depends on the definition of poverty.

Statistic	India	China
% of People	25%	10%
# of People	273 million	131 million

Summary

There's no question about it India lags behind China in every major category save IT offshoring. However, India is planting the seeds that will eventually catch in surpass China in most of the categories cited above. You have heard me preach the infrastructure sermon for quite some time and I see it as India’s only major obstacle to becoming a true superpower.

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Reliance Industries Will be First Ever India Company to reach $100-billion Market Cap

By Vipin Agnihotri

Billionaires all around the world watch out for Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani. He is all set to get the bragging rights as one of the worlds top three or four richest men. It is worth mentioning in this regard that Forbes has put him at a distant 14, with a net worth of $20.1 billion.

I am not saying this because he is an Indian. I have a valid point to say that. According to Wall Street, Reliance Industries could touch $100 billion (Rs 4,10,000 crore) in market cap sometime soon. If that happens, Reliance will be the first company in India to achieve that feat.

At this moment of time, Reliance Industries market cap is around $63 billion, and Ambani owns more than half of the company. Morgan Stanley analysts are of the opinion that Reliance Industries value will jump by 58 per cent?

I totally agree with their estimation because from next year onwards, Reliance Industries will start pumping oil from its proven reserves of 1.4 billion barrels. When one take into consideration the fact that Reliance Industries total proven and possible reserves presently of 5.4 billion barrels, the companys exploration and production (E&P) business will generate $3.5 billion (Rs 14,350 crore) in profits between 2010 and 2015.

But the question now arises: How Reliance Industries will unlock its share value to touch $100 billion? When The India Street contacted Reliance Industries spokesperson in this regard he said that that the company would have to opt for both organic and inorganic growth to achieve the target.

Apart from that, Reliance Industries would need to substantially increase its share of revenues from E&P presently just 2 per cent of its $22-billion turnover. Point to be noted here is that at present, 60 to 70 per cent of Reliance industries turnover of Rs 1,10,000 crore comes from the refining business.

However, some of the experts believe that one-third of the Reliance Industries value is coming from gas and if the government, which has a profit sharing agreement, fixes a lower price, Reliance Industries could suffer.

All in all, if the Sensex rises 30 per cent in the next one year, you could see Reliance Industries hitting the $100-billion mark sooner than expected. In short, Reliance Industries joining the $100-billion market cap club is not a matter of if, but when.

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DLF to invest a third of IPO proceeds in land

Mumbai, India: DLF Ltd has said it would invest Rs 3,500 crore - roughly a third of its planned initial public offering (IPO) - in building up its land reserves. This is significantly lower than its earlier plan of investing Rs 6,500 crore for the purpose.

Announcing its plans here today, DLF said it hoped to raise Rs 9,625 crore through a public issue of 1.75 crore shares in the price band of Rs 500-550 between June 11 and 14.

The new shares on offer will constitute 10.27 per cent of DLF’s post-sale capital. The share sale will give DLF a market value of as much as $24 billion, more than double Unitech’s, India’s biggest property developer.

The real estate major added that it can develop up to 575 million sq ft of real estate space on 10,255 acres (4,150 hectares) of land that it owns or has rights to in 31 cities. The company currently has 44 million sq feet of land under development.

Over half of its land (nearly 5,269 acres) is located in the National Capital Region, 2,708 acres in other major cities and 2,278 acres in the rest of the country.

The company said its current land reserves are sufficient for its planned developments over the next 10 years and provide it with a major competitive advantage, as well as protection against land price inflation.

“We aim to build up land reserves at competitive prices at strategic locations in the country, to gain from them during the upside in the economy,” said DLF Vice-Chairman Rajiv Singh.

While DLF and its subsidiaries own 11.3 per cent of the land reserves, they have sole development rights for 44.6 per cent of the total.

They have agreements to purchase or letters of acceptance for 35.9 per cent of the land, while the rest are joint developments with partners, the company said.

DLF filed its first prospectus in May 2006, which it had to withdraw on account of regulatory objections in August, following complaints by minority shareholders. The company filed a renewed prospectus in January this year. The Delhi High Court recently cleared the issue.

DLF will foray into newer areas in the future, including airport management, financial services, asset management, leisure entertainment and hospital properties, among others.

“We may foray into newer areas if good opportunities are available at any point of time. We can also tie up with foreign partners for the ventures,” Singh said.

DLF is promoted by billionaire Kushal Pal Singh, whose wealth doubled last year to $10 billion, according to Forbes. Singh, 75, a former Indian Army officer, bought land in Gurgaon, 17 miles (27 km) south of central New Delhi, in the early 1980s.

He developed Gurgaon as a significant suburb of the national capital, carving out residential plots and condominiums and commercial buildings that house offices and retail outlets.

Merrill Lynch and Kotak Mahindra Capital will manage the IPO, and Citigroup Inc, ICICI Securities, Lehman Brothers Securities, UBS AG, Deutsche Equities India and SBI Capital Markets will also be the sale arrangers.

Source: BS Reporter.