Zee Learn - Benefit from rapidly growing Pre-school Education segment!

We all know the 4 P's of Marketing that we learnt in MBA class - Product, Promotion, Price and Place. A few years back, a CEO of Toy MFG firm taught me another P of marketing - the Fifth P. Its called Pester Power, the amazing pestering power of kids over parents, how they bargain for toys, clothes, candies and what not. Firms in this segment realize this pester power to target this fifth P and market their products with innovation!

In context of India though, pestering is critical, but more important is to understand the emotional makeup of parents, who maybe frugal when it comes to their own shopping but spend over the top for kid's education, clothes and whatever else they deem necessary for their ward. There is a established trend in most cities for toddlers to attend best Playschools which are often branded Playschool chains such as Kidzee. Kidzee is largest preschool chain in Asia, with more than 900 pre-schools in 330 cities across India. It caters to more than 40,000 students and boasts of proprietary teaching curriculum, content and methodology for children.

Zee Learn which operates Kidzee is a listed firm, and belongs to business house Essel group. Zee Learn is the only listed firm in India which operates in this unique segment catering to play-schools and pre-schools.

Happy Independence Day!!

Happy Independence Day to my Dear Friends!!

India or Bharat, as our great nation is called historically, is now in its 65th year of Independence, and what a progress we have made in this time!! From a poor country in shackles which seemingly had no future, we are now a reasonable strength economic power. Purchasing parity wise, we are third largest economy in the world, ahead of tremendous nations such as Japan, Germany, Russia, France, South Korea and our erstwhile rules, Britain. This is true freedom, where our country which was British slave for many centuries, surpassed the rulers in just half a century. This points to greatness of India, and speaks volumes of what we can achieve in next few centuries.

One thing I observed this morning, is that there is superb difference in country's focus now. Its just Money, Growth and GDP!! Just a decade back, our PM on Lal Quila used to talk inanely about Pakistan, Terrorism, China, Blah Blah, national security, more Blah, Naxalism, Blah, Corruption, Blah and endless Blah.

Today our PM in his second para of Independence Day Speech , jumped directly to GDP!!

Golden Cross on Nifty!

Another Golden Cross happened on Nifty on 27th July 2012. Golden Cross is a significant technical event, when 50 SMA crosses over 200 SMA on EoD charts. This often marks the start of Bull Run on most markets.

In past 10 years of Nifty history, only two Bullish Crossovers, i.e. Golden Cross have failed and one failed recently, when crossover in month of March, 2012 failed to sustain. This is second Golden Cross this year and hopefully strong Bull Run should start in next couple of months. Pls see the chart below:

SpiceJet Ltd - Indian Aviation Sector on a Roll!

Not many would be aware that SpiceJet has had its humble beginnings as ModiLuft in 1993. In fact, NSE ticker for SpiceJet stock is still listed as MODLUF. ModiLuft was an Indian JV with Lufthansa and maintained high standards and created many firsts for Indian aviation sector. However, ModiLuft brand ceased to exist by 1996 due to JV issues and was renamed as Royal Airlines. By 2004 it was renamed as SpiceJet with a low cost business operating model. By 2008, SpiceJet was India’s second largest low cost operator and still SpiceJet is among the four largest airlines in Indian skies.

Indian Aviation sector was in deep trouble since last couple of years due to government apathy, rising Jet fuel costs, cut-throat competition, abysmally low fares and absolute lack of pricing power for all carriers. There was little service differentiation among various carries, which caused price as the only determinant for a flyer to make a decision. Airlines competed solely on price, and fares were as low as INR 100 on some routes, thus driving airlines into deep losses. Spicejet had five straight quarters of losses. And then things turned around.

Indian Bull in Shackles, or is it India in Shackles?

After centuries of stagnation and poverty, history has given our country a chance to grow and grow aggressively. The economy needs to strengthen and needs to lift millions out of poverty. We need to realize our potential. Will it happen in our lifetime?

I think it will. I can write on and on, but since single picture conveys a thousand words, here are my three thousand words: