Water water everywhere not a drop...

	India, Indonesia, Singapore

Apr 18 2010 09:05 Anet Ahern*

It was just before prayer time. Faheem and his brother stood in awe of the Jama Masjid, the 350 year old “World Reflecting Mosque” in Delhi.

A commotion caught his eye (there is always a commotion in India). A crowd was gathered before the central pool, washing their hands, arms and faces in preparation for prayer. Completely taken up in the moment, Faheem joined them. In ultimate absorption, a bit like Charlotte in Sex and the City, he gargled and swallowed a tiny bit of the water that he now noticed was not that clean after all.  His brother, a medical student, took one look at the water and said “Dude, you’re going to die.”

That afternoon, he spent most of his time either surfing his Blackberry to check on his medical aid options while abroad, or convincing himself that everything was going to be ok. It wasn’t.  By the next morning he was rushed to a hospital in Srinagar.  

While he was recovering, the army shot 2 people and most shopkeepers went on strike.  The enterprising houseboat operator tried his best, in true Indian entrepreneurial spirit, to use that to his advantage to get the traveling party to extend their stay. They had no choice but to stay for a few days, but they retreated to a hotel with plenty of bottled water.

Something as simple as the daily combination of a tap running water that will not give you an upset stomach, a bristly toothbrush and a plump tube of toothpaste is a totally foreign concept to most Indians.  The per capita consumption of toothpaste in India is estimated to be 100g per person per year – a little more than a large tube, and less than half of what is used in China. The majority of the population uses toothpowder (much cheaper) or natural cleaning methods. Colgate is the dominant player across the oral care industry in India, an industry with fantastic growth potential, in a country with a burgeoning middle class. The company also has an enviable distribution network – very important in a country with poor infrastructure. 

So you may wonder why the share is no longer held in our portfolios? The answer lies in the key ingredient that is missing at the moment – the share is not cheap enough despite all the positives that we can and have mentioned. So the search continues for shares offering great value, often found in far away places and off the beaten track.

PS. Faheem is one of our analysts and he was actually in India on holiday during the time of the mosque incident. On the average SIM Global business trip there is little time for sightseeing and, thankfully, for wading in public pools.