In October 2000, management guru Gary Hamel was being interviewed on the website ITworld.com at which he was praising a certain company that “started out as a gas pipeline company, which is about as mature and unglamorous as you can get. In the space of about 15 years, they went on to become the first major gas company. From there, they became one of the world’s leading energy traders. Now...

On 28th November CNBC TV18 reported a “stake dilution” move at Gateway Distriparks, a freight container company. The report quoted an analyst saying that “leading industrial houses are in the race” for the promoters’ stake and this could trigger an open offer for the stock. The report went on to say that the promoters were looking at a complete exit at a possible price of Rs700 crore. There...

In October 2000, a friend of Jim Chanos suggested that he read an article in The Texas Wall Street Journal, a regional edition, about accounting practices at large energy trading firms. The piece pointed out that many of these firms, including Enron, employed the “gain-on-sale” accounting method which allowed them to estimate the future profitability of a trade, calculate its present value and...