United Health Care

KOLKATA: If indications are anything to go by, the gym business in the country seems to be fighting fit and in good shape. With a growing number of health conscious individuals eager to look good and keep in shape, the business is seeing the entry of a increasing number of branded players. Of late, advent of large MNC players in this segment is also keeping the existing players on their toes.

The Future group and one of the country's oldest gym players the Talwalkars, have chalked out plans to set up gyms in each of the new malls owned by the Future group.

Gold's Gym, a California-based chain seems to have literally struck gold. With 35 centres which will go up to 50 by December end, Gold's it is trotting up growth even in the smaller towns and cities.

The branded gym chains have emerged as a Rs 3,000 crore business with growth rates anywhere between 20-30%.

"Gym chains have emerged as a specialised business. Branded players are now dominating the market. Since overhead costs are substantial, this business has room only for those players with the funds to sustain it," Vibha Nanabhai, head (corporate sales & marketing) at Talwalkars told ET.

A key growth driver are corporates including the likes of Cadburys', i-flex and PwC, which reimburse employee spend on health & fitness. as part of their HR policy.

Intrestingly, apart from large cities like Mumabi, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata , it is the smaller towns where branded players sem to be making the fastest inroads. Places like Guntur and Siliguri may seem way off the map but it is here that memberships get exhausted sometimes in three days flat.

"It started out as a lifestyle statement but has now become a necessity. We have seen almost 100% growth year on year. Moreover, smaller towns like Nashik and Kohlapur have generated phenomenal business. It took us completely by surprise," Althea Shah, general manager (operations) at Golds Gym said. FitnessFirst, True Fitness and Pune -based World Gym are the other foreign gym chains.

As Dr Nanabhai points out: "In smaller towns it is more of a lifestyle statement for people yearning to climb up the social ladder, be seen and heard. Looking good is a big part of it. In smaller towns, people are more consistent and regular in their fitness approach."

In cities, however, customers can sometimes be irregular in their fitness habits. They also frequently change gyms to try out and experience the different brands. In cities a gym experience is more of a 'social' thing for a group of friends. Hence they often join or leave a gym together.

With a year-on-year growth estimated at a healthy 30%, a number of corporates are also getting into the business. Kaya Life, a Marico Industries arm, which started in Mumbai in March 2008 is spread in Tier I and Tier II cities with plans to grow at least 60 centres in 3 to 5 years. Most chains target customers in the 25-40 age group.

But, its not age alone that is driving the fitness rage. In cities like Mumbai upto three generations of the same family could be attending the same gym. Talwalkars, which has been in the business for nearly 76 years, has for instance seen it at its oldest outlet in Mahim.

"A workout gives confidence especially since we are increasingly stuck in sedantary life with little or no exercise. Above all, it is a lifestyle trend," Raj Dhingra, chairman, Powerhouse Fitness which has 20 national outlets, including 6 outlets in Delhi. Powerhouse has corporate like DHL, SpiceJet, Indigo and BPO and ITeS units.

Membership fees have shot up from Rs 1,200 to Rs 3,000 per monthi in the last one and half years. But no one seems to be complaining, Neeraj Dahiya of Tangent a supplier of gym equipments said.

Hence, gyms are coming up everywhere. Be it inside malls like the Furure group & Talwalkars, or like the one FitnessOne, a Chennai-based chain that has set up at a gym at Cognizant Technologies, Saint Gobain and L&T. FitnessOne sets up custom built corporate gyms depending on the size, requirements and the budget of the organization. It also counts Nokia, Britannia, Biocon among its clients.

WASHINGTON: More than 100 new cadets at the US Air Force Academy got infected with swine flu at July 4 barbecue and fireworks display but quick isolation measures got it under control within two weeks, researchers reported on Tuesday. The outbreak provided a unique opportunity to study the virus closely and Catherine Takacs Witkop and colleagues say they discovered some surprising things. Among them:

Nearly a quarter, or 24%, of patients still had virus in their noses seven days after getting sick, including 19% who had been well for at least 24 hours

Tamiflu, the drug used to treat influenza, did not help any of the previously healthy young men and women get better any quicker

Most cadets were sick for five days or longer 11% of the cadets became infected.

In June, soon after the new H1N1 virus was declared a pandemic, 1,376 new cadets arrived for their first training at the academy, near Colorado Springs, Colorado. “A total of 134 confirmed and 33 suspected cases of new H1N1 infection were identified with onset date June 25-July 24, 2009,” Witkop’s team wrote in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The cadets, unusually young and healthy, all did well and none became seriously ill or died. Most cases were traced to a July 4 party for the cadets, Witkop said.

“It was about 48 to 72 hours later that we saw the increase in the cadets presenting with the symptoms,” Witkop said in a telephone interview. Witkop said the academy doctors quickly designated one dormitory for the sick cadets and kept them away from the others. They tested them daily for the virus, painting a picture of the course of the disease far more detailed than has been possible before.

Eleven, or 19% of nose washes taken from 58 patients who had been free of symptoms for a full 24 hours still contained virus, although it is not clear if the patients were still contagious. “If a cadet is no longer coughing or sneezing, how likely this virus is to be transmitted is still a question,” Witkop said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that H1N1 patients can return to work and school 24 hours after their symptoms such as fever go away. Many of the cadets were treated with oseltamivir, the pills sold by Roche under the Tamiflu brand name, but they did not get better any more quickly than untreated cadets. “We did use it in the hope that we would stem the tide of the outbreak but I don’t think the Tamiflu was the key player in the outbreak resolution,” Witkop said.

“I think it was ... the isolation protocol,” she added. Cadets stayed in the sick dorm until they were free of symptoms for 24 hours, or for seven days after first getting sick, whichever was longer. The CDC recommends saving Tamiflu for people most at risk of getting severely ill from flu, such as pregnant women, people with diabetes or asthma or disabled children.

The academy also quickly educated the cadets about washing hands and not spreading germs by covering their coughs, and Witkop said they used a great deal of hand sanitizer, which may have helped control the outbreak within 10 to 14 days.

Indian businesses have created a niche for themselves in the international markets in ways more than one. Indian entrepreneurs are making waves all across the globe, be it in the field of technology, education, entertainment or the age old heritage of Ayurveda. This centuries old science from India is now a name that can be reckoned with in any part of the world. It is estimated that the total value of products from the entire Ayurvedic production in India is on the order of one billion dollars (US). The industry has been dominated by less than a dozen major companies for decades, joined recently by a few others that have followed their lead.

Ayurvedic aspirations

The Shahnaz Husain Group is a leader of herbal beauty care, based on the holistic healing system of Ayurveda. Today, it is an organisation of its kind in the world, with a global chain of franchise salons, spas, shops and beauty training institutes, as well as over 350 formulations for beauty and health care. “I started my first herbal salon in my own home in 1971, in a small way, based on the Ayurvedic system. To implement my idea of natural beauty, I established customised beauty care, with a personalised style. I devised my own treatments and started formulating my own products, with plant extracts and natural substances. Eventually, my name became the brand,” expresses Shahnaz Husain, founder, chairperson & MD, The Shahnaz Husain Group of Companies.

While training in London, Husain came across incidents of damage caused by chemical substances and that changed her life and career. “I was determined to find a natural alternative that was safe and without risks. My study of Ayurveda convinced me that it could provide the ideal answers to the demands of beauty care. So, I returned to my roots and opened my first herbal salon in my own home,” she shares. She further talks about how she made extensive efforts to promote Ayurveda all across the world and says, “It was my burning desire to take Ayurveda to every corner of the globe, because I believed that India can offer the world a great deal by way of her herbal tradition. I have promoted our herbal heritage with a crusader’s zeal and to receive recognition from my own country has made my efforts worthwhile. I have promoted the Ayurvedic path to beauty, propagating a healthy diet and lifestyle too, based on the principles of holistic health, with yoga and meditation as an integral part of the programme. This concept of holistic beauty care was unique and caught on worldwide. I have spoken from every rostrum on Ayurveda and how India can lead the international cosmetic industry.”

Talking about the increasing popularity of Ayurveda in the west, Husain states, “The west has certainly recognised Ayurveda, especially now that the concept of ‘total well being’ has been gaining ground. Some time back, prestigious international stores like Selfridges and Harrods had huge display boards in their show windows, advertising the benefits of Ayurveda. I strongly believe that Ayurvedic beauty care can lead the billion dollar international cosmetic industry in the 21st century.”

Husain concludes by saying, “To those who aspire to be successful in the business world, I would say that one needs to have a dream and a burning desire to make their dreams come true. An entrepreneur, in the true sense of the word, is someone with independence of spirit.”

Prevention, better than cure

One of the oldest and most respected Ayurvedic companies of the world, Baidyanath, founded in 1917 by late Pandit Ram Dayal Joshi and his younger brother late Shri Ram Narayan Vaidya, is the manufacturer of 700 Ayurvedic products, with around 10 manufacturing centres around India.

Talking about how the Baidyanath Group has played a role in taking Ayurveda to such great heights, nationally and internationally, business leader, Vikram Baidyanath, scion of the Baidyanath Group of Companies expresses, “Being one of the pioneers in Ayurvedic preparations, Baidyanath has, since 1917, educated people about the benefits of Ayurveda and made Ayurvedic medicines and tonics available to people. Today, Ayurveda has placed India on a very high status in the global scenario. An increasingly large number of people are recognising and switching to Ayurveda, given that Ayurvedic medicines and tonics have no side-effects. In Ayurveda, the emphasis is on ‘prevention’ rather than ‘cure’.”

So, how have things changed since the time this business was started? Baidyanath explains, “Today, our products are mostly prepared mechanically, and not manually, unlike earlier times. Many departments like accounting and finance are now professionally run. I am so proud because we are able to maintain high standards of quality of our products like our elders did.”

Baidyanath further shares that he plans to invest a lot of time and money into R&D to ensure that the very best of what mother nature has to offer is available to people. “My advice to people who aspire to venture into this field is to have good intentions towards themselves, their profession, the environment and everyone they come in contact with,” he concludes.

India is a country known for a lot of things from its cultural heritage. And the credit goes to organisations like these who leave no stone unturned in order to ensure our heritage reaches every corner of the world and lives forever.

Max India promoter and chairman Analjit Singh may soon emerge as the biggest shareholder in EIH and join the founding Oberoi family as a co-promoter. Based on Thursday’s closing price of EIH, the deal would help Oberois net close to Rs 1,000 crore if they offload over 17% stake to Analjit Singh.

Mr Singh currently holds 4.32% in EIH and his stake will rise to 26% through purchases in the open market. So where does that leave ITC, which has been for long the single-largest non-promoter shareholder investor in the company? ITC, through its subsidiary Russell Credit, currently holds a 14.98% stake in EIH. The latest move by Mr Singh may force the tobacco giant to reformulate its strategy for EIH, perhaps even engage in a bidding war.

Mr Singh has in the past sold out some of the large businesses he built for a huge consideration. ITC, on the other hand, is sitting on current assets of close to Rs 8,000 crore and Rs 3,000 crore worth investments on its books. If a battle for control opens up, the cost of bidding would be small change for the tobacco major.

That may not be the case for Mr Singh whose flagship company Max India continues to make losses (on a consolidated basis) and needs a constant fund infusion for its healthcare and insurance subsidiaries.

On the valuation front, the company’s P/E will be in the range of 42-45 times its trailing earnings from 33 times now. Its P/E is too expensive, considering the fact that most hotel stocks are trading at a P/E of less than 15 times. The company had given a dividend income of Rs 47 crore, and with a 26% stake Mr Singh can expect to earn a paltry dividend income of just Rs 12 crore.

NEW DELHI: A fresh round of battle has begun between Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo and Hyderabad-based Zenotech Laboratories with the Company Law Board (CLB) on Tuesday issuing a notice to Zenotech managing director for ‘mismanagement’.

A person close to Daiichi Sankyo said CLB has issued a notice to Jayaram Chigurapati, Zenotech’s promoter & MD, after Ranbaxy filed a case against Mr Chigurapati for “neglecting Zenotech affairs and putting his personal interest ahead of the company’s.” Despite repeated attempts, ET could not reach Mr Chigurapati for his comments at the time of going to press.

This development comes after Zenotech was asked to put on hold its scheduled board meeting on October 9, after Daiichi Sankyo, in a separate appeal, opposed the appointment of two directors as proposed by Mr Chigurapati.
Meanwhile, minority shareholders of the public-listed company appealed to the Securities Appellate Board (SAT) to ask Daiichi Sankyo to increase its open offer price by an additional Rs 10-11 to Rs 170.

Last week, SAT asked Daiichi Sankyo to hike its open offer price to Rs 160 from Rs 113. Daiichi Sankyo first made the open offer in January at Rs 113.62 per share. Following the news of the SAT’s ruling to hike the open offer price by about 40%, shares of Zenotech had touched a 52-week high of Rs 138 last week. Both the companies have been in a tussle for about a year now over the open offer price.

The Japanese company is making the open offer because it inherited an indirect ownership in Zenotech after it bought a 64% stake in Ranbaxy last year. Ranbaxy in turn holds 47% stake in Zenotech. As per Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) takeover norms, if there is a change in control of promoter group of a listed firm, the acquirer has to make a compulsory open offer to acquire at least 20% stake from the company’s shareholders.

SAT on Wednesday heard Zenotech minority shareholder’s appeal to include the interest cost of Rs 11 in the open offer price. The next round of hearing is scheduled for November 6. This effectively means the Japanese company’s open offer to buy an additional 20% stake in Zenotech will not happen till the first week of November before the price is decided by the SAT.

A minority shareholder of Zenotech, on the condition of anonymity, said the biotech company has sought an annual interest of 10% for the delay in the open offer that works out to be about Rs 11. He added the minority shareholders had made this request in the original appeal but SAT had overlooked the matter in its earlier decision.