Headhunting A Headhunter

The financial world creates new jargon with unfailing regularity. One such term that has got a lot of ink in the media in recent months is SPV, short for special purpose vehicle "" an entity created to take charge of assets in a securitisation deal. But that this term can have more than one meaning is something a scribe discovered recently. Executives at a leading housing finance company have been talking about a new SPV obtained by an upstart rival institution. Further enquiries reveal that the SPV they were talking about is a special poaching vehicle "" a senior executive from India's number one housing finance corporation who has been roped in by an upcoming, more aggressive rival with the main aim of luring away other employees. Money for grabs Though KBC has competition in Zee TV's new gameshow where participants can win up to Rs 10 crore, Zee insiders say they still have loose ends to tie up. For starters, in an internal Zee meeting, a very senior executive expressed the channel's ability to give away cash prizes worth Rs 10 crore. Particularly now when Zee is said to have started feeling the financial squeeze a bit. But viewer and advertising attraction to KBC has been so strong that Zee had to come up with a show to match it, if only to salvage the tumbling ratings of its own TV programmes. Zee insiders insist the company has not announced the name of the gameshow since the insurance details of the Rs 10 crore show are still being worked out. What is it they say about their being no gains without (financial) pains? War of the states These are stressful times down south. First, Chandrababu Nadu snubbed Bangalore's IT industry by getting President Bill Clinton to visit his Cyberabad. Karnataka may have got even by showing the Japanese Prime Minister its cyber-path, but fur is flying over a mustachioed villain who's holding Tamil Nadu and Karnataka ransom over political balances. Only Kerala seems out of the southern fray. Not that it doesn't have troubles of its own, what with the petro-dollars drying up. But with its high literacy, it seems to have found out for itself that trouble with the neighbours doesn't pay. No golden handshakes Ever thought about the human cost of a company downing its shutters? A former blue chip company, now on BIFR's operating table, shut its factory in Rajasthan some years back. Even as a trade union flag flies high in front of the factory gate, apparently 80 people connected to the company in one way or another have committed suicide since then. Many had to sell their belongings at throwaway prices to make ends meet. Meanwhile, the tragedy has disciplined the workers in neighbouring factories by making them aware of what a shutdown can do to them.