Facebook and Google chase a new trillion-dollar payments market in India

Surendrasingh Sucharia always has a few thousand rupees in his pocket, but can’t recall the last time he used cash. The 29-year-old product manager in Bangalore uses a string of smartphone apps including ones from Google and India’s Paytm to pay for everything from $40 bags of groceries to street food that costs pennies.

A bewildering array of digital payment businesses from global names like Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp to Google are in a slugfest to win Indian users. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is acquiring a stake in the company behind payments leader Paytm.

Meanwhile, a string of other big-name players are also expanding in the country’s digital payments market including its banks, its postal service, and its richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

India saw a brief spurt in digital payments two years ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned most of the nation’s existing bank notes, although the spike petered out as new bills were printed. But over the past year, a string of new apps have made payments increasingly easy, and the discounts and cash bonuses they offer are proving irresistible to young, urban users like Sucharia.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to invest in Paytm parent firm: Report

Berkshire Hathaway Inc is in talks to invest about 20-25 billion rupees ($285.4-356.7 million) in India's One97 Communications Ltd, the parent of digital payments firm Paytm, the Economic Times reported on Monday.

Berkshire, the conglomerate run by billionaire Warren Buffett, is said to pick up a 3-4 per cent stake in Paytm's parent and the deal is being done through a primary subscription of shares, the paper said citing people familiar with the matter.

If materialised, it could be the first direct investment in India by Buffett, it said.

One of Berkshire's key fund managers, Todd Combs, who is also seen as a potential chief investment officer at the company, is leading the transaction, the newspaper reported.

Buffett steers clear of controversy as 'politics' shows up at Nebraska bash

Even Warren Buffett can’t escape the political and social debates that have spilled over into the corporate world.

Tens of thousands of investors descended on Omaha, Nebraska, over the weekend to hear him speak about business and the economy at the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the conglomerate he’s been building for five decades. But many also wanted to hear the famous investors take stances on some of the most-divisive issues of the day.

Shareholders asked the 87-year-old billionaire to weigh in on the Trump administration’s trade policies, guns and gender equality. But he mostly skirted controversy, sticking with beliefs that may have surprised some attendees but ultimately won over many.

“There are so many things at Berkshire that could be politicized, and he did a good job of nipping that in the bud,” said David Rolfe, chief investment officer at money manager Wedgewood Partners, which oversees about $4.2 billion and counts Berkshire among its largest holdings. “Everything these days is politicized.”

It's not me, it's Berkshire: Buffett says his firm's name will outlast him

If a major company needs capital or a private firm wants to sell, Warren Buffett’s checkbook is often the one they seek out.

Will that stay the case when it’s someone else’s signature?

That was the question from several Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders at the firm’s annual meeting Saturday, adding a fresh angle to the topic of succession for the 87-year-old chairman. Berkshire’s desire to utilize a cash pile that has grown to more than $100 billion makes finding large-scale deals a key issue for whoever will be the conglomerate’s next leader.

Buffett downplayed any unique skill he has to drum up deals, using his inability to find recent ones as evidence. Berkshire often makes large investments in times of panic, when its stable capital, and not the Buffett name, is the allure, he argued.

“The reputation belongs to Berkshire now,” Buffett said at the meeting in Omaha, Nebraska. “We are the first call and will continue to be the first call.”
Charlie Munger, Buffett’s 94-year-old vice chairman, said already most acquisitions are coming from the chiefs of the company’s operating subsidiaries, not he and Buffett.

Buffet dares Musk to beat his candy biz, SpaceX founder accepts challenge

Elon Musk recently took aim at the idea a successful business needs a “moat” -- a competitive advantage that keeps rivals at bay. The pace of innovation, he said, is more important in the long run.

On Saturday, Warren Buffett and his business partner, Charles Munger, shot back.

“Elon says a conventional moat is quaint, and that’s true of a puddle of water,” Munger, 94, said. “It’s ridiculous. Warren does not intend to build an actual moat. Even though they’re quaint.”

Munger and Buffett, 87, were responding to a question at Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s annual meeting about Musk’s comments this week. The pair often talk about trying to expand the “moats” around their businesses.

“First of all, I think moats are lame,” Musk said during an earnings call for his Tesla Inc. on May 2. “They’re like nice in a sort of quaint, vestigial way. But if your only defense against invading armies is a moat, you will not last long. What matters is the pace of innovation. That is the fundamental determinant of competitiveness.”

Apple beats Sensex in market capitalisation

The recent rally in the share price of Apple Inc has taken the market capitalisation of the technology giant to more than $797 billion at 10 PM IST, making it bigger than the combined market cap of all the 30 Sensex companies put together.

India’s bluechip index closed at a market cap of $784 billion, based on Monday's share prices. Apple, the most valuable company in the world, is the only company to have a higher market cap than that of the Sensex companies together. The Sensex accounts for 40 per cent of India’s total market cap.

Apple is also larger than the market cap of countries like Brazil, Singapore, Spain, and Malaysia.

In the league of companies with the top market cap, Apple is followed by Alphabet Inc and Microsoft, which have a market cap of $651 billion and $530 billion, respectively.

Despite reporting lower than expected earnings, shares of Apple went up by 3.7 per cent last week, pushing its market cap to record highs.

The rally in Apple was triggered by ace investor Warren Buffett’s statement that he had more than doubled his firm Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in Apple. His firm currently owns a 2.5 per cent stake in the technology giant. Expressing his confidence in the company despite softer sales in the recent past, Buffett said consumer loyalty for Apple was huge and hence there was nothing to worry.

Apple has gained 32 per cent year to date.

During the previous quarter, Apple added another $10 billion to its cash reserves, taking them to $256.8 billion, larger than the market capitalisation of General Electric (GE). This is roughly the size of the Indian mid-cap index in terms of market value.
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