Newly-formed Ascent Capital, which is a separate investment entity carved out of UTI Ventures, recently raised $350 million (Rs 1,575 crore) for its first fund. The fund is focused on growth capital and is advising and managing ITVUS Fund I, Ascent India Fund II and Ascent India Fund III. Director Ajay Mittal speaks to Shilpy Sinha about the fund&rsquo;s strategy.

'Foreign investors prefer independent managers'

Business Standard

Damien Marmion was out shopping one day when he got a call offering him medical insurance if he just shared the last four numbers of his credit card. He cites this as an example of how health insurance in the country is sold rather than bought. The chief executive of Max Bupa Health Insurance &mdash; a 74: 26 joint venture between Max India and UK&rsquo;s Bupa &mdash; tells Vandana Gombar he wants his products to be bought rather than sold when he launches in the next few weeks.

'Indians tend to place wealth ahead of health'

Praising India for managing the economy well during the global financial crisis, John Lipski, first deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, stresses the need for rolling out a medium-term plan to contain the fiscal deficit and liberalising the debt market further.

'Temporary capital control is an appropriate tool'

Axis Bank&rsquo;s chief talks of her stress-busters and brushes over the &lsquo;Chanda-Shikha&rsquo; stories.

Lunch with BS: Shikha Sharma

One of the youngest domestic private equity (PE) players, Aditya Birla Capital Advisors has successfully raised its maiden fund of Rs 675 crore at a time when fund raising is difficult. It will soon announce the second and final closure of this fund. The fund has already made a couple of investments. The most recent being Rs 50-crore investment in Anuapm Industries.

'Fund-raising has become easy, but not cozy'

Bank of Baroda (BoB) is one of the few public sector banks which showed profit growth in the third quarter, although high provisioning tempered the pace of growth. Going ahead, the bank expects to sustain the performance of the previous quarters. In an interview with Manojit Saha, the bank&rsquo;s Chairman and Managing Director M D Mallya discusses the bank&rsquo;s future plans and strategies.

'We will better the industry's credit growth average'

A decade after liberalisation, the insurance industry is struggling with low penetration levels &mdash; 4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in case of life and 0.65 per cent in case of non-life insurance. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) Chairman J HARI NARAYAN tells Shilpy Sinha that while capital should be the focus of life insurers, the non-life business should focus on underwriting profits and reducing dependence on investment income.

&#39;A hike in FDI limits will ensure a more efficient insurance sector&#39;

One area where public sector insurers have lagged their private sector counterparts is technology. M Ramadoss, the newly-appointed chairman and managing director of the country's largest non-life insurer, New India Assurance, plans to change this. As a move in this direction, his first steps will be to implement 100 per cent core insurance solutions (CIS), just as he did at his previous company, Oriental Insurance.

'Green shoots are now becoming trees &  plants'

Banks are seen under pressure due to falling yields, low credit demand and prospects of rising pressure on net interest margins in coming months. In an interview, Canara Bank Chairman &amp; Managing Director A C Mahajan tells Sidhartha that the bank is insulated and also discusses the consolidation plan.

'Base rate affects only large borrowers, not banks'

Unlike its peers, Allahabad Bank&rsquo;s loan flow has grown at 24 per cent during the year-ended December. JP Dua, who recently took over as chairman and managing director, tells Manojit Saha and Sidhartha that the Kolkata-headquartered bank plans to leverage its branch network to grow.

&#39;Adding volume is the first priority&#39;

Barclays Capital may have completed Pfizer&rsquo;s acquisition of Wyeth and working on the Kraft-Cadbury deal, but it has had little to talk about in India so far. Having worked as advisor to GTL for its Rs 8,400-crore acquisition of Aircel&rsquo;s telecom towers, the Barclays arm has opened its account in India 15 months after acquiring Lehman Brothers&rsquo; business.

Telecom, healthcare primed for big-ticket deals

Rising inflation and the prospect of high government borrowings in 2010-11 are giving tough times to bond market participants. G A Tadas, managing director and chief executive of IDBI Gilt, tells Abhijit Lele his views on yields and the strategy to survive in a volatile market.

'It's a bumpy road ahead for primary dealers'

Investments by venture capital (VC) firms took a beating in 2009. One of the strategy that several VCs adopted during the slowdown was to focus on investee firms. Helion Ventures Partners, a $350-million India-focused, stage-independent venture fund investing in technology-powered and consumer service businesses, was one of them. The fund has invested in 24 companies such as makemytrip.com, UnitedLex, Gridstone, Anantara, Hurix, Amba Research and Mindworks Global Media Service.

'Good management teams continue to be a challenge'

T Rowe Price Group Vice-Chairman Edward C Bernard, who is in India to sign the deal for acquiring 26 per cent stake in UTI Asset Management Co, insists that the two fund managers have a similar perspective on most issues. The third-largest listed US asset manager by market capitalisation with $366 billion under management, says it will let the present management run the company the way it wants, though the plan is to collaborate on products and assets in the long run.

'T Rowe Price is not for calling shots at UTI'

SBI Chairman OP Bhatt spoke to mediapersons at a press conference to announce the bank&rsquo;s results.

'Efforts on to limit bad assets'

Low penetration levels for most financial products and services in India leaves ample room for high-growth investment ideas, according to UBS India Head of Research Suresh Mahadevan. There is a possibility of Indian markets being re-rated if the government delivers, he tells Vandana.

'Tightening worries are a bit overblown'

Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao addressed a press conference after unveiling the third quarter review of monetary policy.

'An expansionary policy is like chakravyuh'

Asset Reconstruction Corporation of India Ltd (Arcil), the country&rsquo;s first and the largest asset reconstruction company (ARC), has seen a decline in new business, so much so that the pool of non-performing assets (NPAs) with banks has been depleted. Managing Director and Chief Executive S Khasnobis tells Shilpy Sinha and Sidhartha that restructuring of stressed assets has hit creation of NPAs.

'We need to be patient in the down cycle'

India Inc can take advantage of the PE (price to earnings) multiple arbitrage as global multiples are not as high as the India&rsquo;s, says Tarun Kataria, managing director and head of global banking and markets, HSBC. HSBC has been associated with some large equity issuances recently, including Oil India&rsquo;s public issue and Hindalco&rsquo;s qualified institutional placement.

'Home-grown PE businesses will do well'

Saurabh Agrawal, managing director and head, investment banking, has reason to feel pleased with his team at DSP Merrill Lynch &mdash; his firm tops the M&amp;A league table and should secure itself a reasonably good ranking in the debt and equity fund-raising sweepstakes by the time the year draws to a close. Agrawal feels India Inc has learnt its lessons when it comes to overpaying for acquisitions.

'Cross-border deals will drive M&As'

IFCI, the country&rsquo;s oldest development financial institution, seems to have turned the corner as it has paid dividends after a decade. While tough times, including defaults, are a thing of the past, the institution is still trying to find a new business model. In an interview, IFCI Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Atul Kumar Rai talks about his strategy and says he will try to keep the financial institution afloat without merging with another entity.

Page 43 - Interviews