I recently read the news on suspending AS11 accounting standards for the next 2 years in view of the dramatic changes in international markets. In the last one year, the rupee has suddenly depreciated from 40s level to 50s declining by more than 20% during this period. Most of the companies were caught by surprise as they did not expect the rupee to depreciate so sharply and hence are facing MTM (mark to market) losses for the current year.

AS11 is a standard for recognizing impact of forex changes on the company’s accounts. I have the discussed impact of forex changes in my discussion of NIIT tech. I have said the following in the past

The current quarter results show a bottom line drop of around 50%, mainly due to forex losses. I do not consider them as core losses (just as forex gains are not permanent gains). I have seen a lot of people get all worked up about forex losses, which does not make sense to me.
Unless the company is speculating on forex (via non effective hedges), I think the forex gains and losses should even out over the period of few years and hence one should be concentrating on the core profits to value the company.
As an example look at the results of the airlines such as southwest (in the US). Southwest airlines has been consistently profitable for the last 20+ years. They have had 2-3 quarters of hedging related losses due to oil price volatility. Do you think they have a problem in their core operations?

So if I have considered these losses to be temporary, akin to a bad bet, then why am I not applauding this temporary suspension of the standards?

The reason is simple – I want my companies to give me the true picture. Don’t fudge, whitewash or hide information from me (as an investor). Please tell me the whole truth and leave it to me to judge the impact of it. As investors we are smart enough (as a group) to judge the impact of forex changes on the long term economics of the companies and don’t need the companies to whitewash this information for me.

Now that we are in the territory of fantasy accounting, I have a few more proposals

– Ignore cost increases of raw material when they become too high. When steel prices increase sharply, all auto and other companies should be allowed to ignore price increases
– Ignore manpower costs and salary hikes. Allow all IT companies to ignore salary hikes in excess of 5%.
– Ignore depreciation after a huge capex. Whenever the company puts up a new plant or makes a big accquisition, allow it to ignore depreciation and amortization expenses

I could go on and on. The above change is self serving and will only muddy up the numbers. It allows the companies to present the numbers in a good light and ignore reality. Is it a given that the rupee will appreciate to 40s level in 2 years and all will be great in the fantasy land?

I personally don’t care what companies report by suspending AR 11 for 2 years. I will personally adjust the numbers of the companies I have invested in or plan to, based on the forex changes.

I really wish I had this flexibility when I was studying !! I would have asked the examiners to ignore all the question I got wrong and I would have always got 100% in all my exams 🙂 . Life would have been good !!

I am mad ! very very mad. See this news item on novartis india.

Novartis AG has announced an open offer for Rs 351 per share with the aim of taking their shareholding to 90%. Although they have not stated any plans for delisting, I think once the shareholding reaches 90%, delisting norms could kick in and the rest of the shareholders will be forced to exit the company.

Why am I mad ? See my analysis of novartis here. My conservative estimate of the intrinsic value is around 600-650 (company has a cash of almost 150 rs/ share). Look at it this way – Net of cash, the buy back offer is valuing the company at 800 crs. This is for a company making almost 100 Crs of profit on a capital base of around 30-40 Crs !!

Another view point – The buyback offer will cost the company around 440 Crs. The company has cash and equivalents of around 435 Crs as of december 2008. So the Parent company will be able to increase its holding to 90% without spending a penny from their pocket !!

Should I feel cheated ? May be not. I have known this modus operandi for some time. A lot of MNC’s have cheated their minority shareholders this way. The steps are as follows

– Allow the performance of the company to stagnate for a few years by avoiding product launches and anything else which enhances value
– Hold all the surplus cash during this time period.
– Wait for a bear market to drive your price down to very low levels.
– Announce an open offer at premium to current price, utilising the cash holding
– Try to mask this operation as a shareholder friendly operation by pointing out that the price is at premium to the current price (which is way below intrinsic value).

I have known and written the above earlier on my blog. I have however chosen to ignore my own advice though and would now be paying for it. At the current price, net of dividends, I have made modest returns. However that is not the point – The point is being treated fairly by the management of your company.

Another case – Ingersoll rand : They have announced their intention of coming out with an open offer too. I am not holding my breath on that as they have tried a similar tatic in the past, but were not successful in completing the buyback.

Lesson for me : Management matters more than i would like to accept. A good business with bad management will translate to poor returns.

What next ?
I am going to wait and watch how this open offer will play out. However even if the minority shareholders reject it, don’t expect the management to change or mend their ways. They will continue to ignore the minority shareholder, give poor dividends and will continue to accumulate cash. The best startegy in such a case would be to exit the stock and deploy the capital somewhere else.

I received the following comment from Raj. I am posting my response via a post. Please feel free to share your comments

Hi Rohit/Everybody,
Can we include below mentioned financial instruments in personal finance and short comments (how easy they are for new investors, who should dabble with them, pros/cons) on them:
A) Commodities
B) Gold
C) Debt instruments
D) Derivatives (options etc.)

Commodities – An easy one for me. I have zilch idea about it. Due to my mindset (value investing, looking at intrinsic value etc), I have not been able to figure out a way to invest rationally in commodities. It does not mean commodities are bad or anything. I just find them outside my scope of competence and would not recommend a new investor to dabble big time in commodities.

Gold – A subset of the above. However I am baised against gold and am a contrarian on gold. The reason for all this excitement on gold is more due to the price run up in the recent past. Look at this chart . Over the past 20+ years, gold has barely doubled giving a return of 3.5% per annum with the entire return coming over the past 5 years. Unless you have some special insight into the demand supply scenario of gold over the next few years, I would not invest in gold based on what others are saying.

Debt instruments – my thoughts on the same here

Derivatives – A short cut to ruin if you don’t know what you are doing. I have personally started looking at these instruments and am currently in the learning phase. I am currently reading and investing in these instruments in a very small way. The idea for me is to test and learn over the next few years before I increase my commitment. This is same approach I adopted when I started investing a decade ago – learn and invest small so that early mistakes are not fatal to your networth and self confidence.

I personally consider derivatives, complex and not an easy way to make money. The upside may be high, but at the same time the risk is high (due to the inherent leverage in these instruments) especially if you are new to investing and have just started out.