Monday, July 23, 2012:
In the wake of the recent controversies involving Corporate companies such as Satyam and Reebok, Equitymaster, India's leading independent research initiative, recently conducted its annual corporate trust poll - India's Most Trustworthy Corporate Group to gauge how investors perceive the most popular companies in India.
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The objective was to find out how investors rank Companies when it comes to maintaining ethics and transparency, especially now, when scams and scandals involving corporate companies have come to the limelight.
4,657 readers participated in the poll that ran on www.equitymaster.com.
The Poll included the following companies: Aditya Birla Group, Anil Ambani Group, Bharti Airtel, Essar, HDFC Group, ICICI Bank, Infosys, L&T, Mahindra Group, Mukesh Ambani Group, Rahul Bajaj Group, Sundaram/TVS group and Tata Group.
In the poll, Tata Group - the largest conglomerate in India, was voted the Most Trustworthy Group for the third time in a row with 55.77% votes.
Explaining the reason for trusting the Tata group, a respondent commented, "I have never noticed any unusual price movement in stocks belonging to Tata group. The results and disclosures are so sacrosanct in this group. The group has always a high standard of transparency in their business and the group creates value to each business."
HDFC Group came a distant second with 10. 41% votes, while Infosys was close on the heels with 10.20% votes.
Surprisingly, the IT major Infosys, which was the second most Trustworthy Company in the last two polls has slipped to the third spot with HDFC taking its position.
Though it is too early to comment on, the general perception for Infosys' dismal performance is credited to the reshuffle at the head of the company.
Another interesting fact revealed in the poll was that investors placed more trust on Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited, which received 2.02% votes, than on Anil Ambani's group, which received just 0.90% votes. However, when compared to other companies, both the Ambani Groups did not fare well in the Poll, ranking 8th and 12th, respectively.
Interestingly, though Sundaram/TVS group received just 3.44% votes, few respondents opined that the Group is as trustworthy as Tata and that it received less votes due to lack of visibility in the public.
The company that figured last in the poll was ESSAR group, with just 0.32% votes.
Some respondents also gave suggestions such as including Godrej in the poll and having a 'None of the above' option as they do not trust any Corporate Group in India anymore.
This poll highlighted one important point that investors are becoming increasingly cautious when it comes to investing. They realize the importance of a good management and are not content with just big names. Investors are giving equal and more importance to the management's proven track record before giving them any credit, which is commendable.
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