Auction action

ZOOMING IN

It must be the mega art deal of the year. But will it change prices at the Christie's auctions that are scheduled to take place at New York's Rockefeller Centre on the afternoon of September 23?

This week Guru Swarup Srivastava, chairman of the Rs 500 crore Swarup Group of Industries announced that he would be spending Rs 100 crore to buy 125 paintings by the indefatigable Maqbool Fida Husain. Art collectors are now turning their attention to the upcoming auctions.

At the Christie's auction 11 of the total 72 lots that will go under the hammer belong to Husain, including The Arrival of Fifth (reserve price $80,000-$100,000) and Nudes ($15,000- 20,000) and Mother Teresa ($30,000-40,000).

"While most other painters have seen their ups and downs in the auctions, a demand for Husain has been consistently strong," says Mallika Sagar Advani, India representative for Christie's.

The fact is that the prices of Indian art have climbed steeply since the first auction was held abroad in 1995.

And Husain has been a constant presence at each of these auctions. About 19 per cent of the works that has been sold at the Sotheby's and Christie's since 1995 belong to Husain.

Prices of his works have, of course, also moved up sharply. In 1995, the year Christie's started auctioning Indian art, a 3ft by 2ft Husain Horse fetched $12,000.

At their Hong Kong auction in April this year, a 3ft by 2ft canvas, again from his Horse series, fetched $49,000.

Besides, Husain also holds the record of selling a large canvas to an NRI for a whopping Rs 2 crore, the highest sum paid for a painting outside an auction.

Husain has, however, been bested at the auctions by Tyeb Mehta's "Celebration" which went to a collector for Rs 1.5 crore in 2003.

Of course, it isn't only Husain's prices that are rising. Indian art prices, by and large, have been growing at the rate of 20 per cent to 30 per cent since 1995.

The average lot value has also gone up from roughly $8,500 in 1995 to $27,000 in 2003. So far, 1,300 Indian works have come up for sale at Christie's.

Also, there has been a significant change in recent years. Back in 1995 about 95 per cent of the buyers were of Indian origin. That fell to 70 per cent last year. Could that mean that the rest of the world is now looking more carefully at Indian art?

Srivastava is clear about the future. He started by investing in iron ore and then moved to online commodities futures trading to art.

As Srivastava says, "If you invest in real estate, it is 10,000 per sq feet, if you invest in a Husain, it is Rs 10 lakh per sq ft." The question is whether he has paid the right price for his investment.

Sofa, so good

The Rs 50 crore Stanley Group began life as a supplier of leather upholstery for car seats, a decade ago. But it has moved on since then. Now Stanley Leather Boutique has entered an exclusive tie-up with Tonin Casa "" one of Italy's largest furniture design houses "" to sell a range of premium tables and cabinets in India.

The furniture, which aims for a modern, contemporary look, is priced at between Rs 30,000 and Rs 75,000.

The company first entered the furniture market with a range of leather sofas five years ago.

"We figured that if people want high-quality leather in their cars, they would be interested in such furniture for their homes too," says Akshay Badrinarayan, head, retail operations, north, Stanley Group.

The Stanley Leather Boutique currently has three showrooms "" one in Delhi and two in Bangalore "" but expansion plans are underway; a new showroom will open in Mumbai in October, followed closely by others in Chennai and Kolkata.

"We are also targeting north India, specifically Punjab," says Badrinarayan. The company plans a total of 15 owned outlets within three years and projects a growth of around 25 per cent in the coming year.

Badrinarayan says Stanley does not believe in casually strewing furniture any which way around its showrooms. "Instead, each room has furniture arranged in such a way that it becomes a prototype of an actual room."

It was this perfectionist approach that sealed the deal with Tonin Casa: "They are very finicky about where their products are being sold."

Milking the market

Everyone's jumping in line to take a sip of the drinks market. First it was players like Dabur and Pepsi battling it out in the fruit drinks market and now smaller players are eyeing different segments to launch products.

Take a look at Bangalore based Sun Valley, which is in its first year of operations has launched Mastikool "" a spice-flavoured tetrapak buttermilk drink priced at Rs 10.

Says Sundeep Bhandari, chief executive officer, Sun Valley, "Consumption of buttermilk at home is quite high but once you're out of the house people avoid it because you don't know how it is made. Mastikool will provide the hygienic option for this traditional drink." Bhandari started Sun Valley last year by getting into the mango pulp export business and decided to get into the tetrapak drink market this year.

Currently, however, the product manufactured at Dynamix Dairy, is only available in Mumbai, Pune, parts of Karnataka including Bangalore, Chennai and Goa.

The national launch will take place next year by February, in time to catch the next hot season. By the end of the next fiscal, Bhandari is expecting turnover to touch Rs 8 crore.

The question is whether these niche products work in the market. Local players also sell lassi, the sweetened curd drink as well as buttermilk or chaas which sells at vendors for as little as Rs 4 per glass.

Even Amul has a lassi variant which so far has met with a lukewarm response from consumers.

Says Jagdeep Kapoor, chairman and managing director, Samsika Marketing Consultants, "The company will have to cross three barriers of freshness, affordability and credibility."

Kapoor points out that Indian consumers traditionally prefer to have milk and milk derivative drinks fresh and are also extremely careful with purchasing these drinks.

It remains to be seen if a small player like Sun Valley can cross these hurdles and make a dent in a market estimated to be as big as two billion litres (sold from local vendors, plastic pouches and such).

Additional reporting by Jai Arjun Singh and Arti Sharma