For the past few days, I have been mulling over the fallouts and developments post the sub prime crisis in the US, and there are two strong thoughts that emerge - a)Have the global financial markets become too complex for their own good? and b)Is the US on the verge of losing its position of pre-eminence in the global economy?
As you will see, the two are kind of related, but intend to restrict this post to (a). But, before I delve in, let me take a small philosphical digression and try to connect that with the theme here.
Archive for November, 2007
Sub prime ruminations (Part 1)
Posted by Arun Uday on November 27, 2007
Posted in economics, economy, finance, sub prime | No Comments »
Imminent slowdown?
Posted by Arun Uday on November 22, 2007
I’m in Hong Kong for a few weeks on work and things don’t seem very bright here (I mean on the business front). The Hang Seng Index has had the second largest fall this year and all the pink papers and business channels don’t seem too optimistic either. Nobody’s uttering the “R” word yet, but with oil in kissing distance from $100, the writedowns from subprime crisis showing little signs of ending soon and the dollar on a free fall, all macro economic parameters don’t seem that healthy. Goldman Sachs too has predicted a $2 trillion crunch consequent to the intertia on the part of big banks to lend aggressively following the crises they are going through. As a result, PE buyouts are also witnessing a huge slowdown from a record $400 billion in Q2 CY07 to $130 billion in Q3CY07. It sure looks like a long cold winter ahead.
Posted in economy | 2 Comments »
HSBC Private Equity invests in Trivitron
Posted by Arun Uday on November 5, 2007
Announcing our first invetsment here since I joined. We have invested $11 million in Trivitron, a leading medical equipment manufacturer and distributor based in Chennai. Our co-investor in Trivitron is ePlanet Ventures, a leading US based VC (with strong operations in Asia as well) boasting of such blockbuster investments as Skype, Baidu and Focus Media. Healthcare as an industry in India is very much in its formative years and is set for obvious expansion in coming years. Medical equipment manufacturing in particular is completely a virgin territory since much of the equipment is currently being imported from outside. We believe it has the potential to ape the success of the pharma industry, which was in a similar stage a couple of decades back, when all important drugs were imported, but has since evolved into one of global stature. Trivitron is the leading domestic distributor of medical equipment in India outside of the top 3-4 large multinationals (GE, Simens etc) and is now setting up a medical technology park in collaboration with global leaders in this space. Therefore, backing a leader in an industry set to take off seemed like a compelling investment opportunity to us. Look forward to working with the Trivitron team to now make it happen.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: HSBC, Trivitron | No Comments »
