Even large companies in mature markets have PE of 15 or higher

1. Even large companies in mature markets have PE of 15 or higher e.g. PE of 19 in the case of Linde before it's merger announcement (perhaps, usually this PE is supported by high dividend yield in mature markets).

2. Lesson for emerging and frontier markets - one take PE of 15 a low valuation.

3. Usually, pre-M&A, big firms have lower PE compared to industry index.

4. Post big M&As also, the PE remains lower relative to the industry PE.

5. However, during M&A the target company's PE could be higher.

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-01-12/praxair-shareholders-asked-to-take-leap-of-faith-in-linde-merger

Havells MD on M&A and advertising

Interview with Anil Rai Gupta, Havells, Chairman & MD


On M&A

Interviewer: Are you looking to acquire Llyod's business?
Anil: Anything which adds to:
- product category
- geography
- channel
these are the kind of acquisitions we would like to do.


On Advertising 

Interviewer: Margins have come down this quarter due to higher spends on advertising

Anil: We see advertisements as investments in brand building. Currently, the market is down. When market recovers we expect the investments in advertising to pay-off over the next 2-3 years.

Source: Interview in Mint Newspaper, Oct 20, 2016

The long run is just a collection of short runs

1. Every idea sometimes is taken too far. For example, the fact that short run is not so important, only long run.

2. Bill Gates said in their early days at Microsoft:

"I came up with this incredibly conservative approach that I wanted to have enough money in the bank to pay a year’s worth of payroll even if we didn’t get any payments coming in. I’ve been almost true to that the whole time."

3. Economist Tyler Cowen recently wrote:

"Plenty of companies have made big mistakes from thinking too big and too long-term; for instance, a lot of mergers were based on notions of long-run synergies that never materialized. In reality, short-term improvements are often the best way to get to a good long-run plan."

4. Long run is infact nothing but a lot of successful short runs.

http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-long-run-is-just-a-collection-of-short-runs/