“I had bought shares in India – it was one of the few times I’ve done that in my life, and it was because of the new government” Jim Rogers said in a condescending tone, implying that he held India in contempt so far and regarded Indian stocks as unworthy of investment.
Nilesh mocks the statement by calling it “profound”. Nilesh cleverly refers to Berkshire Hathaway, the gold-standard of investment amongst several foreign investors (and many Indian ones as well), and points out that the Kotak MF has itself given “7 times more returns in dollar terms” than Berkshire Hathaway has over the past 17 years. The Kotak MF has beaten the benchmark index by double the margin of Warren Buffett’s outperformance since its inception, Nilesh adds.
To rub it in, Nilesh emphasizes that the BSE banking index in India has risen 19.45% compounded annually in the past 10 years, a feat unseen in the so-called developed markets.
“India should, in fact, have been part of your core portfolio … You would have made far more money if you were an investor in India rather than a trader” Nilesh says, giving back to Jim Rogers in his own pompous manner.
Jim Rogers’ patronizing tone when referring to Raghuram Rajan, the RBI Governer, (“I am not saying he is great – all central bankers are bad – but, he is certainly the least bad.”) also irks Nilesh Shah. He dismisses the statement as wrong and adds that it is a “comment on our system without understanding the scale”. The number of passengers carried by the Indian Railways in a single day is more than the entire population of Australia, Nilesh says, underlining the vastness and complexity of the Indian economy and the fact that it cannot be evaluated on the same benchmarks as other economies.
Nilesh also takes a swipe at Jim Rogers’ fascination for Gold and commodities. “I have always found it better to invest in golden entrepreneurs” Nilesh says and points out that since the inception of the Sensex in 1979, it has outperformed gold by more than 21 times in dollar terms.
Nilesh also takes Jim Rogers head on for his oft-repeated lament that “no progress is visible” by advising him not to go by the headlines. Nilesh recounts several instances to prove that there is indeed positive change at the ground level and that economic and qualitative parameters have shown significant improvement over the past 12 months.
Rogers’ patronizing advice to India to “get rid of exchange controls and make it easier for foreigners to invest in India” also meets with a severe rebuttal from Nilesh. “Show me one market where the largest bank, mutual fund, telecom company, or consumer staple company is majority owned by foreigners” Nilesh says. He adds that there are no exchange controls for foreigners in India and says that the fact that foreigners have easy access is demonstrated by the fact that foreigners now own more than half of the free float in Indian stocks.
Nilesh Shah delivers the knockout punch by addressing Jim Rogers the way one would address a novice investor who is nervously investing for the first time. “I urge you to consider investing in equity mutual funds as most of us are outperforming the benchmark indices by large margins ….. Don’t go by the headlines …. Do your own analysis …. India is changing with newer and better business models. There will be many winners and a few losers …. Most of the times, it makes sense to listen to all but to choose your own path” Nilesh says in a tone reserved for dimwit investors.
This must have left Jim Rogers cringing with embarrassment.
Now, we have to see whether Jim Rogers scurries off like a dog with its tail between its legs or he comes back with a rebuttal.
Rogers is real shite and all his recommendations about commodities & american bank stocks are a total mis-calculate and his predictions on Russia Stock market is a big FLUB.
Mr. Nilesh please don’t waste your valuable time for a PIG called Rogers.
Regards
Bhs
🙂
He the idiot is trying to play smart by creating unwanted panic, so that he can pump in more and get away with 2-3times profit like last year. He can leave without excuse.
Three cheers to Nilesh! Attaboy!
Really great. Must congratulate Nilesh Shah for his strong rebuttal to Jim Rogers and other foreign investors who actually have no idea of how complex is this country, how vast is this country, how proud is this country of this people, its resources and even its religion(?) also. What they get is the headline from media and form their impression. India is the land of unbound opportunities and every investor in the world should have a sizable part of their investment portfolio in Indian stocks. Every Indian should start believing in themselves and look for next 20 years growth opportunity rather than next dawn dismal and disarrayed Sun. Which part of the world you will get a fiercely democratic country, having one of the finest judicial system in the world (except delayed judgments), burgeoning young population and favourable demographic and above all an enterprising risk taker population.
Long live India and India’s growth story.
Nilesh, you hit nail on head. This so called foreign experts are biased towards India Capital Markets or suffer from “Grapes are sour”Syndrome. I am happy that such rebuttals are coming from Indian experts who understand Indian Markets. It is need of the hour that we stress and thrust true picture which will help in image building.
Applaud his effort to Put Jim Roberts in place. However Nilesh Is no paragon of virtue. From10 years back have seen him advise on investing . Since then never seen him say book profits. MY investments made in 2007 As per him ar still in 30% loss.
Haha well replied Nilesh ji 🙂
Regards,
Viren
theaceinvestor.blogspot.com
Love it when the critics come out to criticise investors with track records. The truth takes time to reveal itself, relax and give it a couple of years
“Kotak MF has itself given “7 times more returns in dollar terms” than Berkshire Hathaway has over the past 17 years ” is this true ? seems a bit unlikely to me
Rupees has itself devalued a lot in these 17 years against the dollar… So its not fair to make this statement.
job of Modi is to build stong society economy and filling the pockets of fii is not his job
FII Investments in Indian equities are not good for long term growth of our nation.
I accept the fact that With out FIIs Nifty may not have reached this levels. Fiis were allowed in Indian equities to accelerate the growth, but at any time they can withdraw their investments (Profit booking) so the purpose is defeated.
FDI in other areas like infrastructure & manufacturing are good since sudden investments and withdrawals may not be possible. It may stabilize our growth for a long period.
More over through allowing FIIs in Indian equities they were enjoying the hard work of Indian Entrepreneurs with out any efforts. At the same time FIIs presents in Indian markets are ultimately harmful for the real investers of the nation even though the investers benefit in the short term.
Yes , Indian economy will shootup all off a sudden after rain God Blessing shower And reduction of provision and recovery of NPA by banks
Too much expectation from FIIs are bad and risky proposition. Any Investment is welcome, but an investment only for profit booking is surely bad from India’s point of View. Rather, the Government need to give further incentive for investment in Stock market, here the mass public is not very much educated for managing funds and portifolios, hence investment through Mutual Fund is a good option. Educated and rich will surely go directly to stock market and earn profit. Also the legislation need be aligned to promote internal investment through small savings.
Please ignore Jim rogers.
Peter Lynch in his book ‘Beating the street”explains that Jim rogers always predicted negative about US economy and stock market which never happened .Because he was famous for shorting the stocks and he made money by spreading the negative news.
Whare is your Gold mine mr.nilesh ????? what rogers said has come true now