Stock Market News & Stocks to Watch from StraightStocks » Chennai

Viper Networks, Inc. (VPER) Finalizes Merger, Pending Approvals, With Cirilium India and Announces Revenue and Gross Profit Projections

Stuart T. Smith — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:59:12 +0000

TROY, MI — (Marketwire) — 10/27/09 — Viper Networks, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: VPER), a global telecommunication network operations and technical management company, announced today that it has successfully finalized, pending final regulatory approvals, the acquisition merger with Cirilium India Pvt. Ltd.. This merger with the Company’s joint venture partner, upon completion, will entail a combination of [...]

Clenergen Corp. (CRGE.OB) to Acquire 100% Controlling Interest in UK-Based Company

QualityStocks — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:32:58 +0000

Today, Clenergen Corporation announced that it will acquire 100% controlling interest of UK-based Clenergen Corporation Limited, intending to establish the corporation as a global leader of Biomass Power Generation Companies. CCL currently retains 100% controlling interest in Clenergen India Private Limited, a subsidiary company based in Chennai, designed to implement a 80MW per hour Biomass Power [...]

BASF Kept a Hold on Costs – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:33:13 +0000

BASF (BASFY) is witnessing sales and earnings growth due to better end-markets. All segments are experiencing improvements with the Oil & Gas segment depicting the strongest sales growth due to higher crude oil prices and increased natural gas production.

However, the company is susceptible to the harsh cyclicality of the chemical industry. Slowdown in the U.S. economy and rising feedstock costs are likely to limit the top-line growth of the company. Hence, we rate the stock a Hold and set a six-month target price of $53.

The company is executing its share purchase program successfully. It completed its 3 billion ($4.7 billion) share repurchase program for 2007 and 2008 ahead of schedule. A total of 33.7 million shares were repurchased at an average price of 88.91 ($138.52) per share. Recently, the company launched its new repurchase program for 3 billion ($4.7 billion), which will continue until mid-2010.

Recently, the company announced its plan to acquire a leading Swiss specialty chemical company, Ciba Holding AG, by paying $44.28 in cash for each nominal share in Ciba. The merger will extend BASFs leading position as a preferred supplier to the plastics industry by expanding its product portfolio in the highly profitable market for plastic additives.

Currently, BASF is seeking to gain advantage of the fastest growing automotive market in Asia. By 2009, the company intends to double its production capacity of automotive catalysts in Shanghai, China and triple its capacity in Chennai, India. Recently, the company announced plans to build a new engineering plastics compounding plant at its existing site in Thane, India, which is expected to come up by the second half of 2009. It is also expanding the e-coat facility in Mangalore, India.

Read the full analyst report on BASFY

"BASFY" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
Zacks Investment Research

BASF Kept a Hold on Costs – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:33:13 +0000

Read the full analyst report on BASFY

"BASFY" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
Zacks Investment Research

Hedge Funds in India

Richard C. Wilson — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:15:21 +0000

Hedge Funds in India

The Benefits of Offering Hedge Funds in India

Here's a short article on how the Committee of Financial Sector Reforms in India might introduce hedge funds and why this would be a positive move for the Indian markets and fund industry as a whole.
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The Draft Report of the Committee on Financial Sector Reforms headed by Professor Raghuram Rajan was issued for comment in April 2008. Among the proposals that the high-level committee made was the introduction of domestic hedge funds. The committee feels that, “The presence of hedge funds would induce greater competitive pressure for other regulated fund management channels such as mutual funds.”

This week’s article discusses the benefits of introducing hedge funds in the Indian market. It shows how hedge funds could improve asset price efficiency. Besides, such funds, by virtue of their diverse investment styles, could provide investors an opportunity to enhance their risk-adjusted portfolio returns.

Of different genre

Suppose a long-only (mutual fund) manager and a hedge fund manager both have a negative view on SBI, a positive view on HDFC Bank and a neutral view on ITC.

Long-only active managers will buy ITC in the same weight as their benchmark index, may overweight HDFC Bank and may not take any exposure in SBI. There is a reason for such a strategy. Active managers strive to beat their benchmark index. But they do not take too many active bets, lest their bets go wrong. Often, active funds tail the benchmark index with few active bets. Importantly, such managers cannot short-sell to take advantage of their negative view on a stock.

Hedge fund managers’ do not suffer from such constraint. In the above example, the hedge fund manager may overweight HDFC Bank, short-sell SBI and not take any exposure in ITC.

Better still, to neutralise any market risk, the hedge fund manager may buy HDFC Bank and short-sell SBI in such a way that the market risk in HDFC Bank is offset by short-selling SBI. Often, neutralising market risk on a portfolio would mean short-selling Nifty futures.

Exploiting price inefficiency

Hedge funds identify mispriced assets and exploit any price inefficiency. One way to do this is to employ statistical arbitrage.

Suppose a hedge fund manager finds that combination of one share of HDFC Bank and two short shares of SBI (1HDFC – 2SBI) has a stable statistical distribution. If the “spread” wanders far away from its mean, a hedge fund manager would set-up this strategy with a view that the “spread” will tighten. Such relative-value strategies can help arbitrate away asset price inefficiencies in a “normal” market. Read more...

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