Mantras for Financial Freedom

Dont procrastinate on wealth creation – Many people procratinate on saving money. They always wait for the next year, next increment, next bonus to start savings and then the cycle repeats again. You do not need to start investing large amounts, start small. Even a years delay makes a huge difference as wealth compounds with time.

Prepone Investments, Postpone expenses - Set targets on how much you want to invest and invest it as soon as you get the money. Do not spend first and save (whatever is left) later.

You do not need crores – It's a myth that you need lots of money to start investing. Even small amounts over time become large due to the magic of compounding.

Go for the long term – Especially in Equity it is important to invest for the long term. They give the best returns in the long term. For short term look at debt.

Invest Regularly – This is very important. You can invest in SIP's which average out your risk. For eg. investing 10,000 rupees a month would yield 1 crore in 15 years at a annual rate of 20%.

Don't link your lifestyle to stock market - When the stock market is rising, our notional wealth increases. Soon we start believing that growth of our wealth is real and long term. This false state of suddenly feeling wealthy leads to change in lifestyle. One of the perils of increasing expenses on your lifestyle during stock market boom is that we get used to comforts and luxuries in life. When economic situation turns bad we will then struggle to curtail our expenses. In fact in reality while markets are rising, we should control our expenses and let our wealth grow. On the other hand when equity markets are down, our wealth is not growing in real terms. Things are also cheaper generally during such periods.

Ignore Rumours - If you are confident about the company you have invested in, leave it. Ignore rumours.

Research & Learn – Learn about budgeting, credit, and debt. Learn how credit cards work! If you get into debt early it can sabotage your progress. Whenever you buy a stock or fund, don't do it on a tip or whim, but do solid research to back up your buy. Investing can be very interesting and rewarding!

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Leveraged Buyout (LBO): An overview

Leveraged Buyout (LBO) has been in the news recently which said that,  Corus –    an Anglo-Dutch company would be taken over by TATA – an Indian company.

Being a relatively new business concept for us, this Article aims to highlight what 'LBO' is all about, its advantages and disadvantages. It cannot be ruled out that, India Inc. may have to see take-overs in the form of LBOs, amidst Globalisation.

What does LBO actually mean technically?

Simply put – it is the purchase of a company by using a small investment and a large loan. The new owner would gain control with a small amount of invested capital because he or she is able to secure a large loan for the balance of the amount needed. A leveraged balance sheet has a small portion of equity capital and therefore a large portion of loan capital.

Leveraged Buyout – also called as 'Highly-Leveraged Transaction (HLT)' – occurs when a financial sponsor gains control of a majority of a target company's equity through the use of borrowed money or debt.

Typically, the loan capital is borrowed through a combination of prepayable bank facilities and/or public or privately placed bonds, which may be classified as high-yield debt, also called junk bonds. Often, the debt will appear on the acquired company's balance sheet and the acquired company's free cash flow will be used to repay the debt.

A leveraged buyout is essentially a strategy involving the acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (bonds or loans) to meet the cost of acquisition. Often, the assets of the company being acquired are used as collateral for the loans in addition to the assets of the acquiring company. The purpose of leveraged buyouts is to allow companies to make large acquisitions without having to commit a lot of capital. In an LBO, there is usually a ratio of 70% debt to 30% equity. LBOs today  focus more on growth and complicated financial engineering to achieve their returns.

Brief History:

What is believed to be the first leveraged buyout in business history is through the acquisition of Orkin Exterminating Company in 1964. However, the first LBO may have been the purchase by McLean Industries, Inc. of Waterman Steamship Corporation in May 1955.

The Theory of the Leveraged Buyout:

While every leveraged buyout is unique with respect to its specific capital structure, the one common element of a leveraged buyout is the use of financial leverage to complete the acquisition of a target company. In an LBO, the private equity firm acquiring the target company will finance the acquisition with a combination of debt and equity, much like an individual buying a rental house with a mortgage .Just as a mortgage is secured by the value of the house being purchased, some portion of the debt incurred in an LBO is secured by the assets of the acquired business. The bought-out business generates cash flows that are used to service the debt incurred in its buyout, just as the rental income from the house is used to pay down the mortgage. In essence, an asset acquired using leverage helps pay for itself.

In a successful LBO, equity holders often receive very high returns because the debt holders are predominantly locked into a fixed return, while the equity holders receive all the benefits from any capital gains. Thus, financial buyers invest in highly leveraged companies seeking to generate large equity returns. An LBO fund will typically try to realize a return on an LBO within three to five years. Typical exit strategies include an outright sale of the company, a public offering or a recapitalization.

Exit Strategy Comments

Sale: Often the equity holders will seek an outright sale to a strategic buyer, or even another financial buyer Initial Public Offering. While an IPO is not likely to result in the sale of the entire entity, it does allow the buyer to realize a gain on its investment Recapitalization: The equity holders may recapitalize by re-leveraging the entity, replacing equity with more debt, in order to extract cash from the company.

LBO Candidate Criteria

Given the proportion of debt used in financing a transaction, a financial buyer's interest in an LBO candidate depends on the existence of, or the opportunity to improve upon, a number of factors. Specific criteria for a good LBO candidate include:

·         Steady and predictable cash flow

·         Divestible assets?

·         Clean balance sheet with little debt?

·         Strong management team?

·         Strong, defensible market position?

·         Viable exit strategy?

·         Limited working capital requirements?

·         Synergy opportunities?

·         Minimal future capital requirements?

·         Potential for expense reduction?

·         Heavy asset base for loan collateral?

Criticism of LBOs

Critics of leveraged buyouts argue that these transactions harm the long-term competitiveness of firms involved. First, these firms are unlikely to have replaced operating assets since their cash flow must be devoted to servicing the LBO-related debt. Thus, the property, plant and equipment of LBO firms are likely to have aged considerably during the time when the firm is privately held. In addition, expenditures for repair and maintenance may have been curtailed as well. Finally, it is possible that research and development expenditures have also been controlled. As a result, the future growth prospects of these firms may be significantly reduced.

Others argue that LBO transactions have a negative impact on the stakeholders of the firm. In many cases, LBOs lead to downsizing of operations, and employees may lose their jobs. In addition, some of the transactions have negative effects on the communities in which the firms are located.

Much of the controversy regarding LBOs has resulted from the concern that senior executives negotiating the sale of the company to themselves are engaged in self-dealing. On one hand, the managers have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to sell the company at the highest possible price. On the other hand, they have an incentive to minimize what they pay for the shares. Accordingly, it has been suggested that management takes advantage of superior information about a firm's intrinsic value. The evidence, however, indicates that the premiums paid in leveraged buyouts compare favorably with those in inter-firm mergers that are characterized by arm's-length negotiations between the buyer and seller.

Advantages and Disadvantages

A successful LBO can provide a small business with a number of advantages. For one thing, it can increase management commitment and effort because they have greater equity stake in the company. In a publicly traded company, managers typically own only a small percentage of the common shares, and therefore can participate in only a small fraction of the gains resulting from improved managerial performance. After an LBO, however, executives can realize substantial financial gains from enhanced performance.

This improvement in financial incentives for the firm's managers should result in greater effort on the part of management. Similarly, when employees are involved in an LBO, their increased stake in the company's success tends to improve their productivity and loyalty. Another potential advantage is that LBOs can often act to revitalize a mature company. In addition, by increasing the company's capitalization, an LBO may enable it to improve its market position.

Successful LBOs also tend to create value for a variety of parties. For example, empirical studies indicate that the firms' shareholders can earn large positive abnormal returns from leveraged buyouts. Similarly, the post-buyout investors in these transactions often earn large excess returns over the period from the buyout completion date to the date of an initial public offering or resale.

Not all LBOs are successful, however, so there are also some potential disadvantages to consider. If the company's cash flow and the sale of assets are insufficient to meet the interest payments arising from its high levels of debt, the LBO is likely to fail and the company may go bankrupt. Attempting an LBO can be particularly dangerous for companies that are vulnerable to industry competition or volatility in the overall economy. If the company does fail following an LBO, this can cause significant problems for employees and suppliers, as lenders are usually in a better position to collect their money. Another disadvantage is that paying high interest rates on LBO debt can damage a company's credit rating. Finally, it is possible that management may propose an LBO only for short-term personal profit.

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Understanding 'Dollar - Rupee Relation' amidst current financial crises

About 'Exchange Rate' of a currency:

The exchange rate of the currency of a country in relation to the currency of another country depends on the comparative trade advantages and economic strengths of the countries.

If one US dollar is equal to 45 rupees, it simply means that in the US, if a dollar fetches 45 oranges while in India, a rupee would fetch only one orange of equivalent size and quality.

Just like any other commodity, the currency of any economy is based on dynamics of supply and demand, and its value depends on trading in currency exchanges all over the world. Higher the demand for a currency on an exchange, the stronger it becomes and vice versa. However, for currencies like INR which are not traded on exchanges, the value depends on capital inflows in the country.

Appreciation & Depreciation of currency:

A currency appreciates means its value has increased in relation to another currency.

A currency depreciates means its value has decreased in relation to another currency.

Eg. If 1 $ costs Rs 45 and if it now costs Rs 44, this means rupee has appreciated in its value (i.e. instead of Rs 45 you will get 1 $ in Rs 44, this also means the dollar has weakened). Similarly, if 1 $ costs Rs 45 and if it now costs Rs 46, this means rupee has depreciated in its value (i.e. instead of Rs 45 you will get 1 $ in Rs 46, this also means the dollar has strengthened).

Why do currency values fluctuate?

There are many participants in any foreign exchange market. These entities — like banks, corporations, brokers, even individuals — buy and sell currencies everyday.

Here too the universal economic law of demand and supply is applicable: when there are more buyers for a currency than sellers, its exchange rate rises. Similarly, when there are more sellers of a particular currency than buyers, its exchange rate will fall. This does not mean people no longer want money; it only means that people prefer to keep their wealth in some other form or another currency.

Scenario before occurrence of the current financial crises:

We were witnessing a surge of dollar-inflows into India due reasons like strong economic fundamentals and favourable business atmosphere, etc. These dollar inflows can be in the form of Foreign Direct Investment, portfolio inflows (foreign investment in equity), External Commercial Borrowings by Indian companies abroad, and remittances to India by Non-Resident Indians. Since the Indian economy and the Indian stock markets have been on a roll, the capital inflows to India has been pretty strong which has primarily led to the appreciation in value of rupee. This huge influx caused a significant demand – supply gap between the dollar and the rupee. Going by the laws of demand & supply, the rate of the rupee vis-à-vis the dollar, rises.

Due to this exporters were placed at a disadvantage with a rising rupee, since the dollar became weaker. Thus a dollar which fetched Rs. 48 about two years ago today fetched only Rs. 44 eating into the profit margins of exporters (since they earned less on their exports).

At the same time, importers benefit (since they need to pay less for their imports), but our economy was at a stage where we first needed to build our dollar reserves to meet our import payments and so the exporters' woes were needed to be tackled first.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as the central bank of India, which oversees the foreign exchange (forex) management of this country quite often intervened to ensure that the rupee was adequately propped at a particular rate. This was done to ensure that there are no sudden currency shocks, to protect exporters and importers and above all, to ensure the feeling of 'national pride,' which is attached to a stable and healthy currency.

When the RBI intervened to keep the rupee at some weak value, it had to buy the dollar inflows from exporters, from NRIs, from foreign direct investors, from companies that borrow abroad. In any case the sellers of dollars need rupees to conduct their businesses here. The RBI buys or sells dollars via state-run banks to prevent excessive volatility in the forex market and avoid any sharp appreciation or depreciation in the currency. When the RBI purchases foreign currency inflows, the domestic monetary base or money supply or both rises since for every dollar the RBI buys from the market, an equivalent amount of rupees gets injected into the system, adding to excess money in the system or the liquidity overhang. When the RBI buys dollars, it pays for them using freshly printed rupee notes. This leads to greater money supply, higher credit growth and inflation.

And precisely, here comes the catche. As RBI sells more rupees, the money supply increases which means too much money chasing same (or less) number of goods, thereby leading to inflation. So in effect one act of RBI creates another problem. In other words, when the RBI buys dollars from the Indian market, it simultaneously pumps rupees into the currency markets, creating the risk of inflationary pressures. The RBI typically controls the appreciation by manipulating demand-supply dynamics of currency market. It purchases dollars (to create more demand for dollar) and sells rupees (to increase supply of INR, thereby decreasing its value).

To contain inflationary pressures, the RBI adopts a measure termed as 'sterile intervention.' Under this measure, the RBI sells Government of India bonds in the market. With the sale of these bonds, the rupee, which had flowed into the market for buying dollars, is once again sucked out of the market. When the RBI buys dollar-denominated assets, (to create demand for dollars and reduce supply of rupee) it sells rupee-denominated securities to suck the rupees back. But when the RBI has to suck out a whole lot of rupees back, it has to raise rupee interest rates, the Repo rate (the interest rate at which commercial banks borrow for short term from RBI) and the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR).

This is how the RBI protects the dollar-rupee exchange rates and yet, manages to contain inflation.

Scenario after occurrence of the financial crises:

The sub-prime crises, bankruptcy, sale, restructuring and merger of some of the world's largest financial institutions caused cataclysmic disruptions in the international stocks and money markets. Imprudent financial decisions, fed by greed and bad luck, have seen global financial markets collapse.

The current financial crises that shook the global financial markets has seen unprecedented bailouts and infusion of dollars into the US economy at a cost of many an emerging market, from where funds have been pulled out to flow back into America.

India, which was till recently having huge capital dollar inflows, now is experiencing flow of dollars outside the country due to selling of more Indian shares than bought (to the tune of over $9 billion), thereby making dollars scarce in India and reduced demand for rupees, simultaneously, as there is increased demand for dollars due to spurt in crude oil prices and the dipped capital inflows.

The dollar prices fell by some considerable amount with respect to most of the currencies. Here in India the rupee rose to around 40-41 a dollar from around the 45 rupees a dollar. There is a lot of panic among the exporters because a weak dollar adversely affects the exporters, especially in the services sector who have all their expenditure in rupees and earnings in dollar.

The growing Indian trade deficit and the large fiscal deficit are also contributing to the fall of the rupee. The higher price of imported goods, especially oil (India is a heavy importer of oil), has also led to an increase in domestic inflation and a fall in the value of the Indian currency. High inflation and a strong growth in the Indian economy have already forced the RBI to raise interest rates.

Example: Consider a firm; say 'K software' that has a profit margin of 5 %. Now 'K software' bags a contract of 100,000 USD from a big US based firm when the dollar Rupee exchange rate is 45 Rs a dollar. So the profit of 'K software' would be 5 % of 100,000 i.e. USD 5k (= 225k Rs at the exchange rate of 45Re= 1USD) and expenditure which is in Rupees as USD 95k i.e. 4275k Rupees. Therefore, 'K software' goes ahead with its project and when the project is completed the dollar gets weak and trades at 40 Rupees a dollar. Now 'K software' has already spent 4275k and now despite getting the promised 100,000 USD they get only 4000K rupees and end up, in effect, paying 275k for developing the software. So weakening of dollar is detrimental for the exporters.

To explain it with another example; Say that exchange rate is US 1 $ = 50 INR. If an exporter X earns US $ 1000 by exporting his goods/services to US, his earnings in Rupee terms is Rs. 50,000. If the Rupee appreciates to US 1 $ = 40 INR, then in rupee terms the earnings of exporter will be Rs. 40,000. A fall in earnings despite the exports being constant. But the exporter who is based in India has to spend in INR in India; he has less money at his disposal constraining his further growth by way of limiting his investment capacity.

Importers on the other hand have to pay less to import the same thing suppose you buy a 100$ iPod now you will have to shell out just around 4k instead of the earlier 4.5k. This is one of the reasons why all those Oil economies which are primarily the importers maintain very high exchange rates by regulating their currencies.

Reverse of what was happening before the crises:

Therefore, where the RBI was sucking out the excess liquidity from the system caused due to huge capital dollar inflows, it is now compelled to reverse its stance and infuse liquidity back into the system. Where previously the CRR was hiked, RBI now reduced the CRR, repo rate and adopted to increase the reverse repo rate(the interest rate at which RBI borrows for short term from the commercial banks), since there is shortage of money supply in the system and therefore reduced credit in the market.

Written By:  Anand Wadadekar, M.A Economics, MBA Finance & Banking, AMFI, DIT, GCIPR

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