Rahul Mathur Profile picture
Jun 22 5 tweets 2 min read Read on X
ICICI Bank’s former CEO recently launched her own YouTube channel (under the radar with with just 7K subs)

In her most episode, Chanda Kochhar interviewed Deepak Parekh (ex Chairman HDFC) and what he said on her show made me jump off my seat ⤵️
Deepak Parekh: “It's never been talked in public but I'm willing to share it now, (you asked me) why don't you come back home?”

i.e. Chandha Kochhar had proposed a merger between ICICI Bank and HDFC Ltd

Important historical context: ICICI served as the “sponsor” to help Hasmukh Thakordas Parekh (HDFC’s founding chairman) secure the license. Exact details of financial help if any, are unknown. But suffices to say - HDFC’s roots were indeed from ICICI.

Hence, Kochhar’s comment “come back home” is very valid

Deepak Parekh clarified: “I thought it won't be fair. It won't be proper with our name (HDFC) and the bank and all…” So, it didn’t happen and later the HDFC Bank <> HDFC merger took place
Now, I would have assigned a ICICI Bank <> HDFC merger a probability of 0.

But, I find it fascinating that this was even suggested in a boardroom discussion between parties!

Love how podcasts / YouTube media brings out such incidents which haven't been shared before!
We've seen former TV anchors (Faye D’Souza, Sonia Shenoy etc) starting their own YouTube channel.

But, a former CEO of a Nifty 50 company start her own content journey is very different!

YouTube & video content has truly gone mainstream - even 10 yrs ago, someone like Mrs Kochhar would have hosted a talk show on TV, today she owns her own IP on YouTube!
➡️ Link to her interview w/ Deepak Parekh:

Discl: Views are my own. Shared for informational purposes only. Will refrain from commenting on the CBI inquiry etc since it is still in proceedings.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Rahul Mathur

Rahul Mathur Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Rahul_J_Mathur

Jun 21
We (India’s youth) are very different from our parents

They have a savings mindset - gold, real estate, no credit card, home loan etc. Money was saved for tomorrow’s betterment (retirement, children’s education etc).

We have a spending mindset - MFs, many credit cards, fancy sneakers, international travel. Money is spent for today’s experiences & indulgences.

These are anecdotes.

Here’s some data which shows how India’s youth spends money ⤵️
1️⃣Where are we spending? Hint: 40% on EMIs

Discretionary spending in India is a luxury.

40% of our spends are towards (financial) obligations e.g. home loan, car loan, education loan.

Btw, obligation spending is is HIGHER than necessities - utilities, groceries, medical.

Necessities is ~ 32% of spending. Discretionary comes in at the end with ~29% of spending.

Note: If you can’t relate to the above, consider yourself very privileged.Image
2️⃣How are we able to spend so much?

Dipping into our savings – Financial assets held by households is now 5.1% of GDP in 2024 viz 7.2% in 2022

Taking more loans – Loan outstanding (PL) is now ₹55.3 L crore ; YoY growth of 13.7%

Earning a lot more – Salaries increased ~9.1% YoY from 2019 to 2024; beating inflation.

Giving in to our impulse - Quick Everything because we’re chronically online – Smartphones now in hands of 72% of Indian population
Read 8 tweets
Jun 17
Jio will be launching 3 Mutual Funds in India shortly which are using Blackrock's ALADDIN model.

ALADDIN literally stands for Asset, Liability, and Debt and Derivative Investment Network

In total, ~200 global institutions use the analytics platform which represents ~₹1,750 lakh crore in AUM.

First time that ALADDIN will be launched in India by any institution:
Jio Financial Services got off to a slow start post the spin-out from RIL Industries but it is slowly gathering momentum:

1. Converted to a Core Investment Company from regular NBFC
2. Launched Jio Finance super app
3. Launching Jio Blackrock AMC
4. Launching Jio Blackrock MF
For Blackrock, this is homecoming in India:

In '08, they entered India by acquiring a 40% stake in DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund.

However, in '18, they exited the JV by selling its 40% stake back to the DSP Group.
Read 5 tweets
Jun 1
I read the entire 340 page "AI Trends" report by legendary investor Mary Meeker which was released 48 hours ago.

Mary used to publish the famous annual “Internet Trends” before most of us were born - her insights are invaluable.

Sharing 10 takeaways from this report ⤵️Image
Index for this post

(1) About Mary Meeker
(2) About Bond Capital
(3) Fav Quote from report
(4) India’s AI usage --“Jai Jio”
(5) Innovators Dilemma RIP
(6) ChatGPT use - Engagement Trap
(7) ChatGPT is under attack
(8) AI has low APRU (for now)
(9) Goodbye Vertical SaaS?
(10) Next Billion Users will be AI native?
About Mary Meeker 👩‍💼

Known as the ”Queen of the Internet”

Was part of the Morgan Stanley TMT team which led the Netscape IPO (which kicked off the dot com boom in 1996). Bill Gurley was her colleague!

She published the 1st edition of the “Internet Trends Report” in 1996 - a 322 page deep-dive into the web’s potential.

She published the ITR every year & called out several trends early:

(a) 1996 → Explosion of online population (X10 by ‘00)

(b) 2000 → Online ads > print ads (happened in ‘04)

(c) 2008 → Mobile dominance (took place in ‘14)

She joined Kleiner Perkins in 2010 to lead their Growth Fund → invested in Facebook, Spotify, Square , Twitter, and Snap

In 2018, KP Growth Fund spun out & re-branded as BOND Capital.

She paused writing the Internet Trends report in 2019 to focus on building BOND - but she’s back to long form & data driving writing w/ the AI Trends Report 2025Image
Read 17 tweets
Mar 29
LIC owns ~4.9% of CSK — a 30X return over a 18 year holding period (>> 20% XIRR) — the story behind this is quite fascinating:

India Cements paid ~₹395 crore (over 10 years) to buy the CSK franchise — it is probably their best capital allocation decision to date: CSK is now worth as much as India Cements 😉

Quick history before we cover how LIC landed up with the stake ⤵️

(1) In Feb ‘08, India Cements offered $91M for CSK — $1 = ₹43.4 then — i.e. ~₹395 crore price

(2) This was to be paid over 10 years (from 2008 to 2017)

(3) MCap (Feb ‘25) of CSK = ₹7,400 crore as per InCred Money unlisted shares feature

👌Works out to >> 20% XIRR*** — beats the Nifty hands down during this period (~13.5% CAGR | even after excluding the ‘08 - ‘09 drawdown)Image
💡Here’s how LIC got the CSK stake

(a) CSK was originally a division of India Cements

(b) In 2015, India Cements spun CSK out as a separate company

(c) As on 9th Oct ‘15, if you were an India Cements shareholder, you would have got 1:1 CSK shares for our India Cements shareholding

(d) LIC was an India Cements shareholder as on that date w/ ~5% ownership

(e) The shares were warehoused in an entity called India Cements Shareholder Trust

(f) Shares were distributed to India Cements shareholders in FY23
🧠The result?

LIC got a 4.9% stake in CSK.

Mr N. Srinivasan (India Cements promoter) is therefore now back to being a promoter of CSK — owns 28.14% of CSK.

And, it is this distribution by the Trust to shareholders in FY23 which kicked off a lot of unlisted market buying & selling of CSK shares. Hence, you will see shares of CSK available across different platforms including InCred Money.

✅The fun part? Because of platforms like InCred Money, although CSK is an ‘unlisted’ company - since it is a Public Ltd Co - you can find liquidity - therefore, this 20% XIRR is as good as realized 🙂
Read 6 tweets
Mar 6
I now have stupid % of cash net worth in Zomato & Swiggy (after the post correction buying) based on my Quick Commerce thesis.

The biggest discussion point with my grandfather* has been Blinkit v/s a global comp Instacart (US listed | $12.53bn MCap | IPO in Sept ‘23)

Zomato (Eternal) MCap is ~$24bn today — per Analysts, Blinkit is approx. 50% of that ($12bn MCap) i.e. like-for-like — Blinkit has the same MCap as Instacart… So, we tend spend time looking at Instacart’s public filings

Instacart generated ~$450M in profit for 2024 — just goes to show how powerful at an scale consumer commerce platform can be!!

Few notes below ⤵️
👍 of course, Instacart is NOT the same biz as Blinkit:

(1) US is different from India
(2) Instacart does store pick-ups v/s Blinkit’s dark store model
(3) Instacart focuses on ‘stock-up’ orders v/s QC in India is still ‘top up’ orders focused
(4) Instacart is grocery heavy (~85%) v/s QC in India is expanding categories beyond grocery

🤔But, what are Instacart’s metrics viz Blinkit?

Gross Order Value (GOV): $33.46bn v/s Blinkit’s annualized $3.5bn

Avg Order Value (AOV): $112 v/s Blinkit’s ₹707 (~$8)

Paid subscribers: 5.1M Instacart+ users ($99 p.a.) v/s 0 for Blinkit

No. of orders: 294M v/s Blinkit’s annualized 380M

Avg order frequency: 2-4 orders per month v/s Blinkit’s 5-10

Look @ difference in AOV & subscription income which drives Instacart profit.
🏦What is the goldmine in Instacart’s business? $958M of advertising income which is ~3% of GMV or 30% of total revenue from operations.

Btw, Indian QC cos like Blinkit & Zepto are way ahead of this (closer to 4% to 5% of GMV). Blinkit & Zepto are on track to do ₹1000 crore of ad income in FY24-25
Read 7 tweets
Feb 11
India is short of 50 Lakh medical professionals right now. The majority of medical staff (> 60%) aren’t doctors or nurses — they are AHPs (Allied Health Professionals).

Due to a global shortage of ~ 1.8 crore AHPs, many countries ‘import’ AHPs who are trained in India…

Traditionally, these roles have not been seen as the preferred career path but this is fast changing:

In the past 2 years, a few startups have been founded to capture a slice of the $200bn annual opportunity in Healthcare training, staffing & recruitment:
This is a “big money business” i.e. these startups are founded by experienced (repeat) founders who raise big war chests —

BorderPlus raised a $7M Seed round yday
Emversity raised a $11M Seed round in 2024
Virohan raised $7M in 2023.

Even RED Health (the 10-minute emergency ambulance business which raised $20M+) has floated a new venture called RED Versity in the AHP training space.

The core of what these companies do is Upskill India’s talent to provide healthcare services globally — our people are our most valuable resource & one of our largest exports ($129bn in inward remittances for 2024).
But, each of these companies has some difference in approach ⤵️

(1) Emversity is focused on offline UG programs to build foundational skills (for AHPs & nurses); with paid industry experience.

Stipends range from ₹18K to ₹30K per month.

(2) BorderPlus is focused on language & culture training to help newly / almost qualified medical professionals get placed overseas

The co is staring by placing candidates in the German (EU) market hence training for language & cultural nuance is critical.

(3) Virohan places a lot more emphasis on online courses alongside paid industry experience.

(4) RED Versity by Red Health is focused on digitizing & owning offline regional training centers to create a single ‘center of excellence’
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(