The IT business is captured in ITC Infotech India Ltd (Infotech), a wholly owned subsidiary of ITC. Infotech, along with its further subsidiaries posted Total income of Rs. 2,268 Cr. and Net profit of Rs. 209 Crores. By no means an insignificant business, and yet another candidate that may not be fully reflected in the share price and can be hived off - except, that feeds into, what we argue, is the problem of plenty viz. what to do with the cash, once realized? For ease of understanding/ reportage, the article restricted analysis to segment reporting of stand-alone ITC - which, captures the main components of the issue discussed.

Daljit Kochhar

Its a typo. Meant to be Reliance Industries Limited.

Daljit Kochhar

Sure. It's an iterative calculation based on segment reports for the FYE20 and trailing twelve month figures publicly available and the market multiples of peers. We look at domestic and global cigarette companies, FMCG players, hotel businesses etc. to arrive at valuation metric and a multiple range. Plugging for the numbers gives us estimate of where we feel it should trade. The piece however, is not giving out any target price, but estimating a range discount that we feel segments are trading at if we were to 'goal seek' to 6-moth trading price range. You may readily find the said pure-play multiples on ET, Money Control etc. to plug them in your own models. Hope this helps!

Daljit Kochhar

My kid has been on WHJ for a year now. I find it constructive time spent. We need to take a step back and take a chill-pill. This coding or ByJus ed-tech thing is a rat race only if we (i.e. parents) let it consume us. To me, WHJ was no different than buying a guitar / chess board and a few lessons alongside for my 7 yr old. He got bored of chess & the guitar but is doing the WHJ classes. I politely tell the WH callers telling me that the boy is a genius to lose my number. They are chasing valuations - good for them . Parents should not let the psychology get to them.

Daljit Kochhar

Informative. Tks. Regarding RAT - if it picks up and isolates even 15 out of the 30 infections vs. 26 for RT-PCR, its a step in the right direction. Public health has constraints on pricing & timing, always. I got an RT-PCR for Rs. 2,400 and a 24hr turn around. I was symptomatic - I would not have spent the money just for kicks. Ergo, the RAT IMO has a place to test a price conscious people for Covid where folks can be infectious while remaining asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic for up to 7 days.

Daljit Kochhar

Yes, we are diverse set. Just yesterday, I had a chat with a business that is aiming a AOV of ₹ 1,000 - and he is selling bread.

Daljit Kochhar

I am not entirely convinced that this is a problem that needs to be solved. i.e. Creating a dark store to get my groceries reaching me within 45 minutes. I use Amazon Pantry all the time. It gets me flour, pasta, tooth paste etc within 1-5 days. That's cool. And I'd imagine that many people that are being counted in the 10-20 Mio customers will fall in this bracket. Sure, I want stuff delivered within 45 minutes also. But then what kind of stuff & how often? Park that thought. The fact that I can get Jaggery delivered within 45 minutes, will also mean that I do not plan my purchases and correspondingly my order size is not very large. The latter is needed to break a profit.

Daljit Kochhar

The focus on logistics of production of the vaccine and ensuring it reaches our citizens, is the right call. The assumption is that we are able to trade our prowess to make a gazillion doses for the world to ensure first-in-line status. This is where I hope the govt uses its diplomatic brains and treasure chest. The making of the vaccine reminds me of situational cases in ethics classes wherein in the pressure of being first to market (time), good people end up making (very) bad calls. The world leaders need to be on guard for such behavior or at least not fuel it under some false sense of nationalism. How many of us will take a dose of Sputnik - which if I am not mistaken suggests that Phase 3 is ongoing with commercial use.

Daljit Kochhar

The FSA platforms drive traffic to the restaurants. This is true. They however, in no way build customer loyalty. The loyalty is only to the discounting. Every once a while, the food discounting leads to higher APC due to encompassing drinks. In most cases, this does not happen. Many restaurants have been opened up with little thought or as life style businesses. This is apparent if you were to visit them on a weekday for lunch. Thus, they embraced the smart company using what every fool feels is the ticket to a better life - technology. Except, all it did was drive up FSA valuations. The restaurants unwittingly have reduced their prices in perpetuity. And as I said to a friend running an upscale eatery many months ago - y'all seem to be afflicted with the Stockholm syndrome. I absolutely love Zomato as a discovery & food delivery platform. And Gourmet Planet & Eazy Diner for their deep discounts. I love it all the more as they all seem to be paying me to use the fantastic offering they have created. To me, a classic case of smart people given a lot of money to build fantastic tech while not worrying about cash-flow. So much, for the acronym I was taught in business school - CFIMITYM … Cash Flow is More Important Than Your Mother. Its all acceptable cost for value to be created in 2030. After bonus cycle!

Daljit Kochhar