Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Help Me Fight 'Comment Spam'

I just spent 45 minutes deleting spam comments from various posts on the blog and am really PISSED! So far I'd kept the comments free for all, hoping that it would encourage all you guys to share your views with the minimum of fuss and bother.

Unfortunately, spam comments are outnumbering genuine ones by at least 5 to 1 and so I'm having to disallow anonymous comments. I hope all you guys out there will understand and take the time to create a blogger ID so you can continue to contribute to this blog. On my part, I hope this step reduces the spam to a more manageable level so I can devote more attention to writing.

Thanks for your support and do come back soon!

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Companies I'd Love to Own - 1

For a follower of Warren Buffet, I’ve been quite remiss in my attention to great companies. It’s time I focused more on the brand names and businesses I’d be proud to own rather than chasing every company that looks undervalued and diffusing the gains on my portfolio.

Buying only on value and / or clear future promise is a philosophy that has paid off very well so far, getting me into great businesses like ITC, Infosys, SBI and Bharti at prices that seem throwaway by today’s standards. I’ve made at least 60% on these on an annualized basis, not bad by any standards!

In line with this strategy, I plan to maintain a watch-list of my favourite companies, starting today. Today’s post contains a few of the more obvious ones and I will keep adding companies to the list over subsequent posts. These may not be undervalued right now – in fact almost all would be priced quite high in today’s market – but there’s bound to be a time in future when I can pick them up on ‘sale’.

And, when that happens, I’ll be there. Will you?

Today’s List

I bet you recognize all of these companies, making them a great way to start a list of 'Great Companies to Own'

  1. Jet Airways
  2. Blue Star
  3. Hero Honda
  4. Bajaj Auto
  5. Maruti Udyog
  6. State Bank of India
  7. Punjab National Bank
  8. ICICI Bank
  9. HDFC Bank
  10. Kotak Mahindra Bank
  11. United Breweries
  12. ITC
  13. Infosys
  14. TCS
  15. Wipro
  16. Blue Dart
  17. Sintex
  18. Britannia
  19. HLL
  20. Asahi India
  21. Apollo Hospitals
  22. Hotel Leela Ventures
  23. Mirza Tanners
  24. CRISIL
  25. Trent
  26. Pantaloon Retail
  27. Dabur
  28. Marico
  29. Gillette India
  30. Cipla
  31. Wockhardt
  32. Ranbaxy
  33. Bharti Televentures
  34. Biocon

Do write in with your suggestions on companies big and small that might belong to this list. They must have something that gives them a strong, sustainable advantage in their market. Usually this is a brand name but it could be anything - a captive market, a niche area of expertise that others cannot get into, an early mover advantage in a potentially lucrative market...

Will wait for your comments. See you next time.