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Prem Watsa, the 'richest, savviest guy you've never heard of'

MUMBAI: Prem Watsa, the 63-year-old Canadian billionaire behind the $4.7-billion BlackBerry deal, is seen as the saviour of the struggling smartphone maker. Born in Hyderabad in 1950 and son of a school teacher, Watsa is a first-generation entrepreneur who moved to Canada in the early '70s where he went on to build a multi-billion-dollar financial services and investment empire virtually out of scratch. Fondly referred to as the 'Warren Buffett' of Canada in some circles for his sagacious and mostly long-term bets, against short-term gains, Watsa today controls a business empire that spans across continents, including an exposure in India.
After passing out from the Hyderabad Public School, Watsa went on to complete a degree in chemical engineering from IIT, Madras. After cracking the IIM entrance test in the second attempt, he dropped the plan and went on to pursue an MBA at the University of Western Ontario Business School (later known as the Richard Ivey School of Business) in Canada, as his elder brother was settled in that country. He left India with $8 in his pocket and he had to sell air conditioners and furnaces to fund his education at the university.

After MBA, Watsa began his professional career in 1974 as he joined the investment wing at the now-defunct Confederation Life Insurance Co in Toronto as a research analyst. Watsa concedes that it was a lucky strike for him as he was the only one who turned up for the interview out of four candidates called. He proved his mettle soon enough and became one of the stock portfolio managers for pension clients. His manager, John Watson, was the first major influence on his professional career and taught him all that he knew about investing based on British-born American investor Benjamin Graham's theories of value investing. Graham's theories of safe investing have remained with Watsa all through his career as he rejected theories of quick returns, rather focusing on long-term investments, something that he shares in common with Buffett whom he idolizes.

After nearly a decade with Confederation Life, Watsa worked with a start-up asset management firm, but quit a year later to start his own venture Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel with a few partners in 1984. His big break finally came in 1985 when he took control of a small Canadian trucking insurance company Markel Financial, which was nearing bankruptcy. That became the base for today's Fairfax Financial Holdings. He re-organized this company and in May 1987, renamed it Fairfax Financial Holdings (Fairfax: short for "fair, friendly acquisitions"). Fairfax has served both as an insurance holding company and Watsa's investment vehicle.

The company thrived under Watsa's leadership. The compounded annual growth in book value per share for Fairfax has been 23% between 1985 and 2012, while the common stock price has compounded at 19% annually. In 2012, gross premium earned was $7.2 billion across the group compared to $17 million in 1985. While Watsa's business success has been legendary, he remained away from the media glare for the most part of his initial professional life. For first 15 years at the company, he barely spoke to a reporter, and he only started holding investor conference calls in 2001. It was for the same reason that one of the magazines described him as the "richest, savviest guy you've never heard of".

While not being very aggressive in his positioning, Watsa showed his fighting spirits when he launched a $6-billion lawsuit against a group of hedge funds in 2006, accusing them of conspiring to drive down Fairfax's shares so they could be shorted. A short position enables an investor to profit when a stock drops.

He has also shown an uncanny sense of sensing trouble, when everybody is gung ho.

He predicted the crash of 1987, the Japanese collapse of 1990 and also the 2008 meltdown in the US. He gained from the US slowdown by picking up shares at rock-bottom prices when others were counting massive losses. And, it is not just business that Watsa is dedicated to. In an interview, he counted his family as one of the pillars behind his success. He met his wife, Nalini Loganadhan, during the final year at IIT and married her a few years later. The couple today has three children - two daughters and a son.

Apollo-backed Sapien Biosciences to work on personalised medicines

Sapien Biosciences to offer personalised medicines
It is a new company focused on personalised medicines. Sapien Biosciences, launched on September 23, will initially focus on patients who undergo heart surgeries and angioplasty. It finds the right dosage of the blood thinning medication required by them.

Typically, after surgery and angioplasty, a procedure to clear blocked arteries, patients are prescribed blood thinning medication for three to 12 months. However, many patients don't respond fully to treatment.

Sapien Biosciences is now offering a lifeline to patients by offering a "personalised platelet response test" called 'MyPlatelet'. The company will take blood samples of the patient, conduct tests to study the genetic mutations and blood platelets. It will subsequently, in two to three days, suggest to the doctor the dosage of medicine that is most likely to be effective for the concerned patient.

'MyPlatelet' will cost patients Rs 6,500.

Sapien Biosciences is a collaborative effort of Apollo Hospitals and Saarum Innovations - while Apollo holds 70 per cent share in the venture, Saarum holds the rest of the equity.

The new company, eventually intends to create a "world-class bio-bank that will enable cutting-edge life sciences research and support discovery and development of novel biomarkers, diagnostics and personalised medicine applications."

It is housed in the Apollo Hospitals campus at Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad. Apollo has far invested over Rs 20 crore in the new venture.

Sapien Biosciences hopes to collaborate with Apollo, other healthcare enterprises or companies and drug discovery companies "to study disease epidemiology, validate new diagnostics and identify new drug targets".

"The bio-bank will collect high-quality, ethically consented and 'anonymized' human samples along with medical and sample level data across various diseases - cancer, cardiovascular and diabetes," says Jugnu Jain, co-founder and the Chief Scientific Officer of Sapien Biosciences.

Probe begins into case against The Hindu RE

For the third day running, Resident Editor of The Hindu S. Nagesh Kumar was made to go to the Punjagutta police station here by the police in its ongoing witch-hunt against the newspaper.
The harassment has been going on in connection with the case registered against the newspaper for publishing a report about the visit of Director-General of Police V. Dinesh Reddy to a godman in the Old City. The police commenced investigation into the case registered against the Resident Editor on Tuesday, a day after his bail order was executed.
Accompanied by his advocate Balwanth Reddy and medical practitioner K. Ramakrishna, he reached the station at the designated time. He sought another date for his examination on medical grounds and showed all relevant records.
Mr. Nagesh Kumar said he would appear on September 28, for the questioning. Station House Officer N. Tirupathi Rao, who is the investigating officer, however, insisted that he appear again on September 26. After prolonged discussions, his next appearance was fixed for September 27, in line with a notice that was served on Monday but superseded immediately.
During the 100-minute meeting, the investigating officer questioned the Resident Editor in a general manner.

Tatas, Singapore Airlines not to raise loans in India to capitalise JV

Tatas, Singapore Airlines not to raise loans in India
The Tata Group and Singapore Airlines (SIA) have assured the government that the foreign car-rier would not raise any loan in India to capitalise the joint venture (JV) and further funding beyond its $49-million initial invest-ment will come in as per business requirements.

The joint proposal by the two companies submitted for approval of the Foreign Invest-ment Promotion Board (FIPB) makes a strong pitch on the ground that "SIA's investment in India and the operations of the JV company would have the potential for significant foreign exchange earnings in India". The proposal further states that better services at competitive rates would be provided by the new airline, in which the Tata Group would have a majority stake and management control.

The proposal, accessed by Mail Today, states, "The brand SIA is recognised worldwide and the expansion of SIA in India will signal the ability of the country to attract leading names from the international circuit to benefit the Indian market. High foreign investment inflow would further strengthen the civil aviation sector."

The two companies have also assured that the JV, branded Tata Singapore International Airlines, would provide "better services at competitive rates".

Airlines have been jacking up fares since 2011. The introduction of a new airline with a strong fleet would lead to increased competition and lower fares. The proposal also high-lights the job potential that the JV would offer. "Since the JV company will hire Indian resi-dents to assist in establishing its operations in India, this would create jobs especially for young people and provide for their training. This will enhance the development of Indian employ-ees and contributing to human resource development in India.

Further stating benefits that the JV will offer to the economy, the proposal states, "The JV com-pany activities may benefit from economies of scale offered by ven-dors to SIA in relation to procure-ment of aircraft, engineering serv-ices, spares and infrastructure."

The participation, therefore, of an internationally reputed full-service passenger service airline operator in the JV company would increase the competitiveness within the full service at competi-tive rates and overall development of full-service scheduled passenger airline services, the proposal adds.

Elections 2014 A worker looks at a Congress flag carrying a picture of its party chief Sonia Gandhi next to flags of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) inside an election campaigning material workshop in Ahmedabad October 10, 2012. REUTERS/Amit Dave/Files Social media not a game changer Political parties in India are relying more on social media ahead of the 2014 election as a way of increasing voter support, even though politicians in general do not expect such efforts to significantly influence election results. Full Article Tharoor on the digital presence of Gandhis BJP IT cell head on party’s social media plans Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Most Popular Most Shared Oracle CEO Larry Ellison skips keynote for America's Cup races 4:09am IST AIG CEO apologizes for comments equating bonus criticism and lynching 3:26am IST Sailing-Oracle looks to shut down Kiwi America's Cup challenge 1:28am IST UPDATE 1-Cruz brings Tea Party fight on Obamacare to U.S. Senate 4:05am IST UPDATE 3-Sailing-U.S. boat pulls even in historic America's Cup comeback 5:23am IST REUTERS SHOWCASE Tainted Politicians Tainted Politicians Cabinet moves to protect convicted politicians Full Article Energy Bill Energy Bill India shies from diesel hike, seeks $5 bln fuel savings. Full Article Deal Talk Deal Talk Kingfisher Air in talks with an investor, says Mallya. Full Article JLR R&D Centre JLR R&D Centre Jaguar Land Rover to open new $160 mln R&D centre in UK in 2016. Article BlackBerry Deal BlackBerry Deal By going private, BlackBerry may buy time to fix itself Full Article | "Not cool" Stronger is Better Stronger is Better Bewers tap India thirst for potent beer. Full Article Tracking the Rupee Tracking the Rupee Our special coverage on the rupee. Full Coverage Buy, Sell or Hold? Buy, Sell or Hold? Confused while buying stocks? Get buy, sell or hold recommendations from VantageTrade. Full Coverage Reuters India Mobile Reuters India Mobile Get the latest news on the go. Visit Reuters India on your mobile device. Full Coverage Asian shares slip, dollar steady in subdued trade


Pedestrians are reflected on a stock quotation board displaying a graph of the movement of Japan's Nikkei average outside a brokerage in Tokyo August 28, 2013. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/Files
Asian shares slipped and the dollar inched higher in early Asian trade on Wednesday, as concerns about a possible U.S. government shutdown and uncertainty about the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy outlook made investors hesitant to take aggressive positions.
"Sentiment remained somewhat subdued as investors stayed cautious amid lingering uncertainty on the Fed's stance," analysts at Credit Agricole wrote in a note to clients.
"Adding to that uncertainty is the approaching deadlines for the U.S. fiscal struggle and we expect the market to place increasing focus on that front going forward," they said.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped about 0.1 percent, while Japan's Nikkei stock average .N225 was down 0.2 percent.
The dollar was narrowly higher against its Japanese currency, buying 98.76 yen, while it rose fractionally against a basket of six currencies to 80.588.
The euro was slightly down at $1.3472, with support cited at its August high of $1.3453, pressured by a disappointing German survey overnight.
The September Ifo survey of German business sentiment, released on Tuesday, showed a slight improvement from the previous month and touched a 17-month high, but still fell short of the consensus forecast.
The downbeat survey came a day after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the bank was prepared to do more to support the region's nascent recovery.
"It seems like an improvement in the euro zone economic data has stalled. In addition, now that Germany's election is over, the market could dust off the issues that had fallen out of focus, such as further aid to Greece," said Masafumi Yamamoto, forex strategist at Praevidentia Strategy.
On Wall Street on Tuesday, U.S. stocks mostly ended lower, extending their slide to a fourth session. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 0.42 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index 0.25 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index managed a modest gain of 0.08 percent.
Tea Party-backed U.S. senators are threatening to stall a bill to fund the U.S. Government.
New York Fed President William Dudley, in an interview on CNBC on Tuesday, defended the central bank's surprise decision last week to refrain from tapering its stimulus because the U.S. economy was weaker than the Fed thought in June. Dudley, a known dove, said he "wouldn't rule out" a stimulus reduction later this year.
U.S. economic data on Tuesday was mixed and lent credence to the Fed's decision to hold policy steady. U.S. home prices gained in July, but consumer confidence slipped in September, underscoring the possibility that higher interest rates and a sluggish economy could brake the housing market recovery.
On the commodities front, copper futures edged up 0.2 percent to $7,159.50, on track to snap a three-session losing streak fuelled by supply concerns and uncertainty about the Fed's policy outlook.
Oil prices firmed against a backdrop of hopeful signals that longstanding tensions in the Middle East could be thawing. U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday cautiously embraced overtures from Iran's new president as the basis for a possible nuclear deal, but a failed effort to arrange a simple handshake between the two leaders underscored entrenched distrust that will be hard to overcome.
Front-month Brent crude for November delivery rose about 0.1 percent to $108.79, while November U.S. crude added 0.2 percent to $103.37 a barrel.

Social media not a game changer in 2014 elections

 
By Aditya Kalra and David Lalmalsawma
Political parties in India are relying more on social media ahead of the 2014 election as a way of increasing voter support, even though politicians in general do not expect such efforts to significantly influence election results.
Parties are trying to ride the digital wave by conducting workshops to teach leaders and foot soldiers how to improve engagement on websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The country of 1.2 billion people had around 165 million Internet users as of March, the third-largest in the world, according to data from India’s telecommunications regulator. But the number of social media users is likely to grow to about 80 million by mid-2014, a report released in February said.
For the Bharatiya Janata Party, India’s main opposition party, social media is helping as an “accelerator” in conveying their messages to the public.
“I don’t call it a game changer, but an accelerator in this election … it’s definitely setting a narrative, it is influencing a lot of people,” Arvind Gupta, head of the BJP’s IT division, said in an interview.
by research group IRIS Knowledge Foundation and the Internet and Mobile Association of India said social media could have a “high impact” on 160 of the 543 constituencies in the next election, and no contestant could afford to ignore this medium. The study said 316 constituencies will have “low” or “no impact”.
Congress minister Shashi Tharoor, who has more than 1.9 million Twitter followers, cautions against overstating the effect of social media.
“I think it can be a game influencer, but I wouldn’t go beyond that at this stage … social media happens to offer an additional way, not a substitute for any of the traditional means of campaigning,” Tharoor, one of the earliest adopters of Twitter in Indian politics, said in an interview.
(Also read: An interview with Tharoor on social media plans of Congress and the digital presence of the Gandhis)
For years, election campaigns in India have been designed around public rallies, popular welfare schemes and print, television or radio advertising. Digital efforts have only recently made it to the list.
Costly personal computers and a largely rural population meant lower Internet penetration in India, but the user base has been growing at a rapid pace as markets are now flooded with cheaper smartphones and tablets.
Politicians are learning the potential of the online medium, which already plays a big role in election campaigns in countries such as the United States.
Other than Twitter and Facebook, leaders in recent months have used platforms such as Google Hangout to connect with the public, with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram among the early adopters.
Modi, who is also the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for 2014, is among India’s famous social media celebrities with 4.4 million Facebook ‘likes’ and 2.3 million Twitter followers.
While BJP leaders such as Modi and president Rajnath Singh are on Twitter, top Congress leaders such as Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, seen as the PM-choice-in-waiting, are not.
In recent years, Tharoor says he has encouraged Rahul Gandhi to try Twitter, but the 43-year-old Congress vice-president hasn’t shown interest.
“There’s no doubt to my mind that both the Gandhis tend to be fairly reticent when it comes to projecting themselves individually; they prefer to let their work talk for them,” Tharoor said.

BSE Sensex wipes off losses, up over 100 points

Sensex wipes off losses, up over 100 points
Wiping off its initial losses, the BSE benchmark Sensex gained over 100 points in morning trade on Tuesday. At 10.21 am, Sensex was up 101.76 points at 20002.72. Similarly, Nifty was up 43.35 points at 5933.10 during the same time.

The 30-share index, which lost 745.68 points in the previous two sessions, fell further by 118.18 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 19,782.78 in early trade as banking stocks slumped after international rating agencies downgraded the debt rating of the nation's top three public sector lenders.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty declined by 34.75 points, or 0.59 per cent, to 5,855.00.

The BSE banking index suffered the most by falling 1.48 per cent to 11,458.48 with stocks of SBI declining by 2.75 per cent, Bank of Baroda by 2.35 per cent, Punjab National Bank by 2.59 per cent, ICICI Bank by 0.64 per cent, HDFC Bank by 1.03 per cent and Yes Bank by 1.73 per cent.

Meanwhile, in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index down by 1.08 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei fell 0.70 per cent in early trade.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.32 per cent lower in Monday's trade.