Apple's Shareholders:Tim cook is the right man for job

Investors were saddened but not surprised to learn Wednesday night of Steve Jobs' departure as CEO. Shareholders seem fairly confident that Apple's larger-than-life co-founder and long-time executive has effectively trained Cook and built a bench deep enough to execute the vision he's laid out for the company. Tim Cook, most recently Apple's chief operating officer, had taken over the top job on two previous occasions in 2004 and 2009, both when Jobs was on medical leave.
"It's reasonable to give [Steve Jobs'] lieutenants the benefit of the doubt for several years," says Pat Dorsey, director of research and strategy at the Sanibel Captiva Trust. "Questions about the leaders' vision for the company are a long way off." Dorsey's clients, mostly high net worth individuals, all hold Apple stock.
While few leaders can match Jobs' vision or showmanship, Apple holders said they are confident about Tim Cook and his ability to execute.

"If this was any other company, you'd say to yourself 'wow, this is an extraordinary CEO,'" said Morris Mark, founder of the hedge fund Mark Asset Management Corp. He has $500 million in assets under management, including an investment in Apple. "Shareholders were rooting for him to be chosen as CEO." Lots of people had speculated before this week that when the time came for Apple founder Steve Jobs to leave his position at CEO, there would be a massive sell off of Apple's stock price. Today, one day after Jobs did exactly that, those investors seem to be keeping their heads, at least at the moment. While Apple's stock price did go down several percentage points in after hours trading on Wednesday, today Reuters reports that the stock went down less than one percent and actually outperformed the overall stock market

Leela: ITC keeping cards close to chest on EIH

Y. C. Deveshwar, Chairman, ITC, addressing shareholders at the company’s 100th annual meeting in Kolkata on Friday told,

It’s not just EIH or Hotel Leela Venture, ITC’s other competitors, too, should now be scared of the diversified conglomerate picking up stakes in them.
ITC has significant equity investments in these two hotel companies, and the company may invest in a similar way in other competing companies also,

ITC’s investments in EIH have reaped significant financial gains as it could foresee the prospect in a company present in same industry, a strategy.On investments in rival hotel companies he said that ITC had ‘temporary liquidity' with funds to the tune of around Rs.5,000 crore.

Deveshwar told,“We invested in EIH at a price of Rs35 while others invested at a much higher price. This is the reason our investments are confined to industries, by and large, where we operate. It’s not only that we would invest in these two companies, we could also invest in other hotel companies, we could also invest in other fast moving consumer goods companies. We could also invest also in agri-products businesses, even information technology companies,”

He told, if the new relaxation in the takeover laws would lead to ITC raising its stake in EIH, now at 14.98%, a tad less than 15%, the level, if breached, would trigger an open offer under present rules. Under the new takeover rule announced on Thursday, that trigger level has been raised to 25%.
ITC would invest (in East India Hotels) further if the price was good or it might even sell if the price went up further.

 He told,“We want to be present in fast moving consumer goods businesses and one of the businesses under the umbrella of foods in dairy-based products. India is the world’s largest producer of milk and there is a great opportunity to add value to it by making derivative products and brand them and market them. Our first project would be in Munger where we have been engaged in animal husbandry programme, upgrading the quality of cattle leading to improvement in yield of milk.