Paradise Lost (IIPM-Publications)

It’s downright embarrassing when you are down in the doldrums and all but written off . It’s equally embarrassing when another troubled giant (GM) pays you $2 billion to bail out of an agreement with you. This has just been the latest in the cup of woes for auto giant Fiat Auto SPA, one of Europe’s largest and most well known car manufacturers. Plagued by a series of losses over the past five years, Fiat did rustle feathers with a $46.3 million profit in the quarter ending December 2005, as that ended an embarrassing trend of losses for seventeen quarters. Current CEO Sergio Marchionne’s restructuring of Fiat including excessive job cuts and cost controls is cited as the reason for profits (besides GM’s alimony of course!).

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Source IIPM-Editorial,2006

Conglomerate's Operations

The conglomerate’s operations are spread across 54 nations and consist of a strong work-force of over 0.2 million. Outside Hong Kong, the company has operations in China and elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region, as well as in Europe and the Americas. The world’s largest private port operator, with 42 operational ports spanning 20 nations, has seen some wonderful strategic decisions over the past decades, but the one that stands out is Li Ka Shing’s obdurate decision to keep on diversifying. It is this decision, most logically implemented, that has ensured that Hutchison Whampoa (Hutch to most of us) “follows profits wherever it goes.” If the corporate world needed benchmarks to vouch for, Hutch would beat its competition by a Whampoa!!!


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Source IIPM-Editorial,2006

Wachovia strikes a volatile deal

IIPM-News:-

Wachovia Corporation has entered the volatile mortgage business after striking a deal to buy Golden West Financial Corporation for a whopping sum of $26 billion. For each Golden West share, Wachovia has agreed to pay 1.051 shares of its stocks, with an addition of $18.65 in cash. Wachovia has undergone more than 140 mergers which have transformed it from the image of being a sloppy bank to a leading player in financial services. The deal is the eight largest in the US banking industry and Wachovia’s largest acquisition so far. The acquisition will give Wachovia an access to Golden West’s 10,000 employees which will enable it to extend operations to over 280 branches across 10 states.

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Source IIPM-Editorial,2006

Companies have hardly used their savings for funding capital expenditures

A very interesting correlation that has been noticed has been that household and private savings have constantly declined over the years; just compensating for the rise in corporate savings. After the worldwide equity bust that occured around the year 2000, the debt component in the balance sheet was one of the major headaches for companies. Firms locked in high levels of debt, prioritized repayment of debt, and not to the surprise of many companies, have now channelled their savings towards debt servicing. Softening long term interest rates has also lured companies to convert their short term debts into long term ones. Moreover, companies have also increased their own equity holdings (through direct investments; and also through repurchases of shares). This equity increase trend would further gain momentum as companies are expected now to be in constant search for growth opportunities abroad. But dramatically, the IMF Report clearly proves that companies have hardly used their savings for funding capital expenditures.

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Source IIPM-Editorial,2006

Health Insurance: Card of Merits

IIPM-PUBLICATION

TPAs: Quality & infrastructure of TPA; Numbers of Tie ups with different hospitals (network); Types of the hospitals/health centre in terms of its infrastructural Facilities; Types of the hospitals/health centre in terms of services they offer;

Tangibility: Promptness in terms of policy issue; On time home delivery of policy/ health card; Simple Procedures for policy issue; Knowledge of the agent regarding different products; Customer service support facilities (Call centre or toll free facilities); Cheque pick-up; Cashless transactions and facilities; Promptness of realization of the payment after submitting the bills.

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Source IIPM-Editorial,2006

Is it ‘exit’ for exit polls?

Exit polls have lost their sheen this time round. So, what happened...
There is a niche set of viewers who should be looking forward to the elections more than the politicians. Unsung heroes (or villains, depending on how you look at it) who remain enshrined in their popularity figures and minutiae, these pollsters – called psephologists by the learned – strive to learn when, how and why people vote as they do, and for whom.

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Source IIPM-Editorial,2006