Walchand Peoplefirst Ltd - Stock Valuation and Financial Performance

Walchand PeopleFirst formerly, Walchand Capital Ltd was founded by Seth Walchand Hirachand in 1920 and is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Its history spanning over 8 decades, has witnessed many exciting developments in its attempt to continually adapt to and exploit the changing business exigencies. In its early phase of growth, the company expanded its investments in the sectors of civil construction, pre-fabricated concrete manufacturing, heavy engineering, light engineering, automobiles, sugar and confectionery, by holding the controlling interests in these ventures. As a group of companies, the Walchand Group had been considered among the top business houses in India.

In order to expand its activities from a group holding company and to take advantage of the new financial trends, the company also commenced its own leasing and financing operations in the 80's.

With changing business circumstances on account of the liberalisation and globalisation in the early 90's, the Group decided to restructure its various businesses in separate undertakings in order to insulate businesses from each other. In 1994, the first phase of restructuring took effect when the company divested its holdings in the automobile and heavy engineering companies. This enabled the company to substantially expand its balance sheet and to strengthen it further by clearing all its long-term liabilities.

The company, since 1994, was engaged in short-term corporate financing. It is a registered NBFC, enjoying a rating for adequate safety, and had successfully launched its fixed deposit schemes and retail finance operations. However, the new Reserve Bank of India guidelines had a restrictive impact on the prospect of growth in these operations and the company took a strategic decision to withdraw from its fund-based activities. The company had also subsidiarised its securities trading operations wherein it holds the Pune Stock Exchange card and the OTCEI broker card. During the recessionary phase since 2001 the company strategically reduced its exposure in the financial services industry.

Business area of the company:

With the establishment of Dale Carnegie Training India, Walchand PeopleFirst represents the first corporate face of the training industry in India. In the last 3 years of operations, it has succeeded in setting new global benchmarks and has created a quiet revolution in this sector. It has become the first choice partner amongst leading corporates and professionals including Tata Teleservices, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, Philips, Sahara, Prudential ICICI, HSBC, HDFC Chubb, Standard Chartered, Wartsila, Oracle, Microsoft, Wipro Spectramind, Bharti, Alfa Laval, Sterlite Industries, ABN Amro, Ernst & Young, McKinsey, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ansal API, HPCL, DSP Merriyll Lynch, Genpact, WNS, Kurukshetra University,etc.

Expanding its portfolio of services, Walchand PeopleFirst also offers a broad range of assessment consultancy services in partnership with PerformanSe SAS.

Launched recently in India, Walchand PeopleFirst has promoted and successfully delivered various online behavioral skills assessment solutions to individuals and organizations including Kodak, Orbit Corporation, LIC, SBI, Alchem, Ras –al – Khaimah, Godrej, Debenham Tie Leung (DTZ), IDBI etc.

Achievements/ recognition:

• The company had received certification from SEBI as Category 1 Merchant Banker.