Six Indian companies have now entered the elite Fortune 500 list. These are: Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Reliance Industries Ltd, and the State Bank of India.
It should time to rejoice, one would say. But hang on; let us do a reality check before we get carried away.
The Fortune 500 listing is based on the annual revenues of the companies and not on their profits, EPS (earnings per share) or market capitalization, which happen to be true indicators of a company's health.
The most-valued companies are not necessarily the ones which are biggest in terms of revenues, but the ones which have high capitalisation, which in turn reflects the investors' faith in the company for higher returns in future.
IOC, BPCL and HPCL: Southwards Ho
A closer look at the current financial status of IOC, BPCL and HPCL would reveal that it would require nothing short of a miracle to keep them away from becoming loss-making units if the present crude prices continue to climb and pump prices remain lower than the cost price.
With situation tense in the Middle East following Israel's bombing of Lebanon, and China showing no signs of decreasing oil consumption, crude prices will continue to climb up. Added to this is the fact that the US dollar is strengthening by the day. Thus, crude prices will continue to rise for India.
Disaster is waiting at the doorsteps of India's public sector oil giants, to say the least.
ONGC: Milking Bombay High dry
ONGC will show profits as long as the oil companies pay them import-parity prices for crude oil. It will face a litmus test only if the supply of crude exceeds the demand -- an unlikely scenario in the near future.
To be called a truly great company, ONGC needs to reduce its dependence on crude from Bombay High and discover a couple of rich oilfields rather quickly, something like what it did at Sakhalin, its successful joint venture in Russia.
ONGC has not been lucky in Nigeria and Angola in bidding for the oilfields, which have near-proven reserves. It will take hard work and great leadership to prove that Sakhalin was no flash in the pan.
Reliance: Great past, rosy present, rosier future
Reliance Industries has been very consistent: growing in topline while keeping its bottomline healthy. It is doubling its refining capacity, aiming to be the most efficient and largest single-location refiner in the world.
The Jamnagar refinery itself is a symbol of path-breaking technology and amazing foresight. It can refine the heaviest and most waxy crude from Venezuela, convert it into the best gasoline and export it back to the European and American markets at competitive prices.
Reliance is a pragmatic operator and is even ruthless when it comes to cutting down losses. The Reliance management has no qualms about seriously restricting petrol and diesel supplies to its newly constructed petrol stations given the fact that fuels retailing is a loss-making business at the moment.
This is the sort of decision which the PSUs cannot even dream of. They will continue supplying fuel supply to their retail stations even at loss because of social commitments and under the diktats of the Union ministry for petroleum and natural gas.
Reliance's petrochemical plants at Hazira and Patalganga are among the most productive units in India. It has a near-monopoly in the petrochemicals sector after taking over IPCL. It decides the market prices and others simply follow suit.
State Bank: The pride of India
The real winner amongst the six elite Indian firms, however, is SBI which has answered its worst critics by reducing its non-performing assets ratio to less than 1.8 from a high of nearly 6 some four years ago. Although it has conceded a lot of ground to the likes of ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank in the metros, its stranglehold in medium and small towns in India is unshakeable.
It has also been growing ceaselessly in the rural areas and the branches that it opened many years ago have broken even after long gestation periods. These will reap in consistent profits for many years to come.
So three cheers for SBI and Reliance.
The author is a management consultant in the field of fuel marketing with over 20 years of experience. Currently, he is based in Nigeria, helping a former Shell company set up best retail and customer services practices.
