Sunday, November 18, 2012

Never say die.................till you’re dead!

The biggest five loss making companies of India

Tell us! What’s the connection between ‘Love’, ‘Loss’ and ‘Alprax’? This one’s easy. It’s damn easy to get rogered in the former two, and you better have the latter close at hand to avoid a nervous breakdown. There; that was easy, wasn’t it! Accept it; finally, all it takes is that one call, one sms, one email from the woman you loved all this while – or from the portfolio manager you hated all this while – to inform you that all your investment has gone down the drain! India as a country is in the middle of a growth flood. It’s hard to imagine then that a company can end up getting losses in an economy where the corporate sector’s profits have actually grown by a smashing 25% in FY08 (see our last story).

It’s not just getting a loss in one quarter, but getting it again and again quarter after quarter, year after year, and so on, that gives the creepiest nightmares to the shareholders that have invested in these handful of companies of India Inc. And the wonder of it is, that it’s not just loss making Indian companies that have destroyed shareholder value, but even hugely profitable ones (see our third story). If India’s sneezing, surely America must have been knocked out cold! And truly, American companies, with their sub–prime blunders, seem thoroughly smashed up (see our fourth story).

But closer home, it’s an issue that seems quite worrisome. Think about it. While companies like Wire and Wireless and Moser Baer India have raked up losses close to Rs.80 crores, well known companies like Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd. and Strides Arcolab have added to the glory by going beyond the Rs.100 crore loss figure. But the king of bad times clearly seems to be Deccan Aviation, with a mind numbing loss figure of Rs.834 crores, the largest loss by any listed company in India!

So how did they end up in losses? It’s interesting to note that almost all the above mentioned companies had their spokespersons travelling when we contacted them for the reasons. Air Deccan to B&E: “Captain Gopinath isn’t in town...”; Tata Teleservices (Mah): “As the spokesperson is travelling, TTML would not be able to participate”; Strides Arcolab: “Your questions are too general; the concerned spokesperson is not available, we cannot participate”; Moser Baer: “We have been very busy for the last few days; you can take comments from our press releases...” and so on so forth.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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