Who wins? The businessman or the Investor?

(A brushed up and improved version appeared in Moneylife ..  Just thought I would share this-  How times have changed and perspectives have changed in the capital markets)

WEALTH CREATION – AN UNEQUAL BATTLE

 

Capital Markets are reformers. As more and more people realize it, the game changes. If I go back to time till the early nineties, the stock markets were very benign. Valuations were very moderate. Interest rates were in their mid to high teens. And given licensing and corruption, company growth rates were modest.

We also had a set of archaic rules where even a promoter could not pay himself a salary that was limited by law.  Our economy had the proverbial “hindu” rate of growth. Agriculture was two thirds of the economy. Services was not an officially recognized sector to make a dent.

 

This naturally meant that there was a big incentive for a promoter to siphon off money from the company. Stock markets were so archaic that a government babu who worked on a book value formula fixed the MRP of a share. Thus, a good company had no incentive to issue shares. Many companies got listed merely for tax reasons. Shares in a private limited company were subjected to ‘wealth’ tax whereas shares in a listed company were not. So many good companies listed. However, they made sure that application forms were distributed to select target groups. Thus, we see that many promoters had holdings between fifty and ninety percent or more.

 

This sarakari babu also helped in creating immense wealth when he forced companies like Colgate or Lever to issue shares to Indian public based on their formula. Imagine if you had got a 100 shares of Colgate Palmolive at the issue price of Rs.26 (face value Rs.10/-) in 1978 in an IPO that was like the Sikkim Lottery? In the first two years, you would have got dividends and bonuses that would have made the shares free and by now you would perhaps be owning close to a lakh shares! That is, provided you had serendipity on your sides and did not sell out. Hundreds of similar ‘investors’ will be there, but there will be thousands who sold out too soon. Very few investors actually piled on to the secondary markets and made it big.

 

Promoter wealth creation had to depend more on siphoning money out of the company rather than by building wealth in to the company. The cruel tax structure plus the wretched state of the capital markets led to this promoter behavior. Greed is dormant in all humans. Capital markets brought this alive.

 

Then came liberalization. And the abolishment of the MRP system for share issuances led to a new paradigm.  Then in trooped the institutional investors and a spread in knowledge about shares, share prices, research reports etc. A liberalized economy brought in with it a flood of capital that also structurally brought down the interest rates. And the government also freed things like promoter salaries etc.

 

Now, the promoter started to think. He realized that a rupee of additional EPS meant a few more crores added to his wealth. So, stealing from the company was not as remunerative. Of course, there are many whose DNA cannot change. But then the next generation is as smart as their parents. They also have the advantage of an open economy and enlightenment about the capital markets. They know that it is important to show as much earnings as possible, so that the share prices remain high. And yes, one can play games with shares. Private placements, QIP issuances, non-disclosure of promoter holdings in full etc have opened a world of excitement.

 

The present generation is clued in on the capital markets. So if you think the DNA has changed, think again. It does not. The gene is the same, but the manifestations are different. The entrepreneur dresses up his business to present a façade of attractiveness.

 

I now see a breed of young investors falling easy prey to the second-generation entrepreneur. The young investor is brash and their crowd is large enough to create a short term ‘self fulfilling’ prophecies when it comes to share prices of small companies.  Gen-next is sharp. They know the key to riches lies in the capital markets. And they have ready accomplice- Investment bankers hungry for fees, institutional investors with other peoples’ money and brokers who know how to lure investors to stocks, no matter how bad. The stock markets are a magnet that draws every participant in to its folds.

 

As a fly on the wall, there are a few things that strike me. One is that the entrepreneur is as sharp as he was. No one can mess with him. Investor is more aggressive, but more gullible. The regulator has left the field open. Like the Keystone Cops, they will provide the laughs in the end.

 

Let me close this out with the story of a commodity-based company from Western India. In the eighties and nineties, the earnings used to stagnate. The promoter did not like paying excise duties so most sales proceeds used to be pocketed. Earnings would always disappoint.  Today, newspapers talk about ‘re-rating of the company. The second generation is in control. They have spared no effort to shore up the earnings. And now they talk management jargons. They are now considered as a ‘retail’ brand. Over the decades, public awareness of the brand has been high. But now, the analysts and fund managers are becoming aware of this brand. This is because the investors and analysts have never been to a market to shop for their household. So they believe in the ‘brand’ getting more reach because of advertising campaigns etc. The analysts, if they go beyond their topline and bottom line growth, will find out the true growth story.  However, they are now busy planning their investment in a QIP. Once the QIP happens, the cash will go out of the company and then the stock would perhaps become a ‘bargain’.

 

Information age? You decide for yourself. Yes you get a slew of information. But that one piece of right information will not come your way. You have to go dig for it. In this battle between the entrepreneur and the Investor, there can be only one winner. Look at the Forbes List. Are there more investors or are there more businessmen whose wealth has been given to them by the capital markets? Choose carefully. Do you want to be an entrepreneur or an investor?

 

To be an investor, you need money to seed your ideas. On the other hand, if you have an idea, you can seed it with venture capital money and then use the capital markets to create your wealth. And you can exit before anyone finds out whether your business is a winner or a loser.  Ideas for business create wealth of a magnitude far greater than wealth that may be generated by investment ideas.