Suspended stock

Teknomin Aqua Exports (India) Ltd is suspended by the Bombay Stock Exchange for 'penal reasons'. No clarifications on what these reasons might be, but a cursory look at the company's annual report does raise some obvious questions.

The auditors report states that the accumulated losses account for 82% of the company's net worth. Teknomin made no sales during the financial year ended Mar-2011, against sales of INR 2.9 million in the previous year. In FY2011, income of INR 9.3 million (PY: INR 4.7 million) was mostly due to profit on sale of agricultural land of INR 6.2 million (PY: 1.2 million) with the balance of INR 3.1 million (PY: INR 0.5 million) from lease rentals of ponds.

Hatchery expenses incurred declined to INR 0.2 million in FY2011 as compared with INR 2.3 million incurred in FY2010. Most of the reduction in expenses has been due a significant decline in expenses on farm maintenance from INR 2.1 million in the previous year to Nil in FY2011. Not a very encouraging sign and indicative of likely lower revenue generation in the future.

Resulting profit in FY2011 amounted to INR 6.1 million (PY: loss of INR 0.6 million). Though there are no plans of making dividend payments or capital expenditures in the near future.

The company holds equity capital of INR 55.7 million, with no reserves or surplus and net fixed assets of INR 14.7 million. The accumulated losses are at INR 45.7 million (PY: INR 51.8 million).

Teknomin has no access to credit lines from banks and the unsecured loans of INR 8.4 million (PY: INR 14.9 million) are due to associate companies. However, the company does have cash and bank balances of INR 1.1 million (PY: INR 1.0 million). The company has dues to creditors for expenses of INR 1.2 million and no dues to creditors for materials and stores.

I wouldn't have much confidence in the company's ability to continue as a going concern, at least in the manner of a functioning business organisation. Revenues and profits are due to exceptional items and do not seem to be sustainable, while net worth is likely to erode going further as Teknomin does not appear to be conducting regular business / trade transactions. Any shareholders stuck holding this equity are to be commiserated with, as they are unlikely to see any returns either in the form of dividend payments / capital appreciation. It would be unsurprising if the BSE continues to maintain the suspended status of the company's stock on the bourse.

Killer apps

Niall Ferguson makes an impressive presentation about the structures on which the prosperity of civilisation is built. For a touch of 'cool effect', he calls them the required 6 killer apps.

Pumas v/s Scots

Rugby World Cup 2011 - Argentina to win against Scotland @ 1.72

Finally a satisfactory price at this tournament, considering the single digit returns on offer so far. The only result that wouldn't have gone according to forecast was the Irish beating the Aussies. The spreads have been so thin since Sept 9th that if you had called for the favourites at every test so far, the Irish upset alone would have resulted in a net loss to the portfolio.

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Update: that went well! :) Thanks to a missed drop goal attempt by the Scots in the closing minutes of the game.

The fall guy

It would be farcical if Kweku Adoboli goes on to become more infamous than Asamoah Gyan. He doesn't deserve the grief, definitely not in his native Ghana, and surely not in the world of financial services. He was likely just being rational (in the broadest possible sense) and ensuring that his bonus checks kept coming. If he was indeed getting away with it for the last 3 years, one must insist the authorities also jail the clowns who were his superiors. Bottomline - this is a colossal management failure.

Damned lists

Forbes just released a list of "The Five Most Dangerous Countries To Be A Woman", the company we're in is depressing.

Winning in Anbar

CPT Trav (may his soul rest in peace) should have got a medal just for this; he probably saved a few lives.

Here's a good presentation that gets the message across.

Buying Turkish Lira

I'd recommend buying any Turkish Lira you'll need for your holiday in Istanbul itself. The best quotes are available at the currency changers outside the Grand Bazaar, with the Sultanahmet kiosks a very close second.

Avoid the booths at the airports, unless you must, the prices at Istanbul's Ataturk airport are slightly better than those you'll receive at London City airport. The curious thing at the latter is that the Travelex booth you see before check-in offers a slightly worse rate than the Travelex booth in the waiting lounge.

The post office in London was the best price available in the city and was definitely more friendly than the other options.

Visa on arrival @ Istanbul

Thank you Turkey; for issuing tourist visas on-arrival to Indian passport holders (with an UK visa). Considering I made last minute plans for a holiday, I was basically looking at countries that didn't make you jump through too many hoops for documentation.

I arrived at Istanbul airport with some trepidation, never having travelled internationally without supporting documents. I need not have worried, the Turkish authorities were amazing. All I had to do was walk up to the visa desk and hand over my passport, the officer scanned the pages, found my UK visa, attached a Turkish tourist visa stamp (1 month single entry) on a nearby page and asked me for 15 Euros, no other questions and no harassment (if you travel on an Indian passport, you'll know what I mean). The entire process took under 2 minutes. One is required to have a return ticket and hotel reservation documents handy, so i'd suggest carrying these but they didn't ask me for them.

If you're thinking of going, start packing already.

Link to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (visa information)

Econ Rap - Fear the boom and bust

This is one brilliantly done video. If you are a student of economics, you'll like it. If you aren't, it's a fun way to be introduced to the great debate in macro.

Playing police

This story reminds me of an why I stopped flying with British Airways. Staff thinking like hall monitors and treating customers as potential offenders rather than being helpful.

I was at Dubai International Airport checking in for a British Airways flight to London. The check-in clerk took my passport and went quiet. He took an awful long time flipping through the pages. I offered to help him find the relevant page with the UK visa on it but he wouldn't even acknowledge my presence. I must say that since I had at least 3 older UK visas on that passport, I could understand if he was confused and I could have helped him find the right one, but he wasn't having any of that. By now, we'd squandered a fair amount of time, thankfully I had the good sense to reach the airport 3 hours ahead of my flight.

The check-in clerk continued to get more rude and obnoxious as this process of flipping through my passport went on. Finally the guy had the good sense to go talk to his supervisor, who was definitely in a higher IQ band. The supervisor asked me if I was going onwards from London to the USA, when I replied in the negative he pointed out that I had a valid visa for the USA and the clerk assumed that I was trying to go to the States without a ticket. To say that I was baffled would be an understatement!

Now I did have a few more valid visas at that point of time, why did he not think I was going to all those places too? To think we'd have saved so much time if he'd just thought to ask me that. I can tolerate a security official treating me suspiciously, but a client facing baggage handler! Now this is too much, any wonder I use different airlines now?

it needed a stand-up comic .....

..... to give us a sense of perspective on this overdone issue.

Editor! is that your 'stet'? Part II

More of the dismal editorial work, and this is from 'Sambit Bal, editor at cricinfo'.

"You can't be only a little guilty when it comes to fixing of any kind, and spot-fixing is even more virulent that full-blown match-fixing."

Editor! is that your 'stet'?

Bad editorial work is everywhere, and this is 'Jayaditya Gupta - executive editor of ESPNcricinfo in India'


"The crowd sighed; England were running - as much as Gatts could run - away with it and the Aussies, whom Calcuttans had taken to its their hearts, were seemingly staring down the barrel." 

ICC Cricket World Cup on MS Excel

The world cup will be upon us within a month. If you're geeky enough to keep track of the 40-odd matches here's an excel sheet to help you do so.

These pictures are worth more than a 1000 words

you'd need a warehouse to store a trillion bucks

The benefits of privatisation

and of course the positive spillovers of structuring incentives. 


Bounty hunters want some respect. The record shows that they’ve earned it.

Catching practice in the slip cordon

In all the years of watching test match cricket, I can't recall an instance of all 10 wickets falling due to catches behind the stumps. Mighty nice of the Aussies to not keep us waiting too long to see England bat. To think I almost wagered on the home team to score over 350 in the first innings. Good call there; but to make things even an opportunity to double up was lost by not punting on the Kiwis at home to beat Pakistan, damn!

The end of an era

When my generation started watching cricket, circa the 1987 world cup, the West Indies were a declining force in world cricket. We read enough about them dominating every other team for the previous 20 odd years, but it was hard to believe given their talent and form.

This was a time when the Australians set the bar and dictated terms to the rest, as long as i've watched international cricket the fight between every other team was always for second best. However, since 2007 there were signs that the Ozzie supremacy would not last, but that too was hard to believe.

However, watching the 2010-11 Ashes series one gets the feeling this is really the end of an era. As an ardent follower of the game, I realise the game needs a strong Australian side. Hence, happy as I am to see the Aussies taken apart, i just hope they come back strongly.

"Where is the American dream?" LOL!

The claim about the crumbling infrastructure is a bit rich coming from the Indian journalist, but Thomas Friedman raises all the usual points in an India referenced article.

Consumption haters

Apparently, the Japanese think it's stupid to spend. I could get on board this anti-consumerist band wagon all too easily. However, all jests aside, this might be a good time to start allowing some immigration.