The Hindu Business Line : Here are our very own Buffetts

Warren Buffett has created history by committing 85 per cent of his $44 billion fortune to charity. The lion's share of $31 billion goes to the Gates Foundation.

"The donating starts this month with the first instalment of 5,00,000 shares, currently valued about more than $1.5 billion on the New York Stock Exchange. A total of ten million shares will be donated over a 20-year period," reports The Sunday Business Post (www.sbpost.ie) , in a July 2 report.

Meanwhile, Buffett is busy making more money, through investments and also lunch appointments auctioned on eBay, such as $6,20,100 raised a few days ago from Yongping Duan, a Chinese fan of the investment guru, for a meal at a steakhouse. As if on cue, there are queries closer home if there are such benign Buffetts here.

To check, we did a study of the Sensex companies, looking for `donations' in their latest financial statements (P&L).

Reliance Industries heads the list, with the highest amount in the tally, Rs 26 crore.

Infosys and Hindalco rank in the second and third spots with Rs 17 crore and Rs 14 crore respectively.

Grasim and NTPC have each donated close to Rs 10 crore.

Ranking on a relative metric (that is, donation as a percentage of reported net profit) brings Dr Reddy's Labs on the top, with a Rs 9-crore donation translating as 13 per cent of profit. Gujarat Ambuja Cement is a far second with only 1.5 per cent (Rs 7 crore donation, as against a net profit of Rs 468 crore).

Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda Motor, Satyam Computer, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, ITC and Cipla have numbers ranging from Rs 6 crore to Rs 15 lakh.

According to data available from Global Data Services of India Ltd, Pune, Max India's Rs 1.48 crore donation, as against Rs 0.53 crore of reported profit after tax (RPAT), works out to 279 per cent. Venkateshwara Hatcheries' donations in 2003 were 175 per cent of RPAT. In 2002, donations by TVS Electronics were 92 per cent of RPAT.

Not an exhaustive list of donor companies, this is, in the absence of any statutory requirement to disclose donations separately.

Surprisingly, more than half the Sensex constituents don't figure in the non-zero list of donations.

One possible explanation is that the amount could have been clubbed with other heads of expenses.

A more elaborate study of the notes to the accounts may reveal the missing links in the donations story.

For instance, HDFC has created a reserve, called `Shelter Assistance Reserve', for being utilised for social causes.

HDFC transfers amounts to this reserve, for use in projects undertaken by NGOs, local institutions and other development associations.

During the year 2005-06, a total of Rs 4.77 crore was utilised out of this reserve, leaving a balance of Rs 10.94 crore.

HDFC's annual report states: "Contributions were towards the corpus of The Research Society, Promise To Act For Children Today (PACT), Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation and The Central Society for the Education of the Deaf, among several others. Some of the activities and projects funded out of the reserve included the refurbishment of a cancer diagnostic and rehabilitation centre in Mumbai, conducting eye-care camps in and around rural Bangalore for senior citizens, maintenance and upgradation of a family-planning and health-care centre in Pune, ongoing activities of a school for visually impaired children in Kolkata and towards supporting the education and nutritional needs of orphaned children in New Delhi."

Enough and more evidence of big Buffetts, closer home, you'd agree.

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