Thrill of adventure
The Ruias are eager to regain their lost glory

The story goes like this – an entrepreneur by heart, Nand Kishore Ruia moved to Bombay in 1956 leaving behind a well established (since 1800s) family trading business in Rajasthan to begin his independent business entity – Essar Group. But the untimely demise of Nand Kishore, put his sons Shashi Ruia (below) & Ravi Ruia in charge of the company. And as Chairman & Vice-Chairman of the company, both brothers have guided the group to new heights.

The company faced massive problems during the liberalization period due to a downturn in capital intensive industries. Undeterred by the ramifi cations, the Essar Group saw resurgence by diversifying into emerging sectors. Their early start in the sunrise telecom sector in partnership with Hong Kong-based Hutchison has made Essar a key player amongst Indian telecom service providers under the brand name Hutch. Apart from this, the Essar Group was a pioneer in the field of power & steel technology. The Group established the country’s first independent power plant and first new generation private steel plant. Currently, they operate the world’s largest gas-based hot briquetted iron plant with a production capacity of 3.5 million tones per annum. Shashi Ruia states that he wants to make Essar “one of India’s premium producers and exporters of steel.”

With initiatives like the telecom foray taken in the post liberalisation era paying off handsomely under the current booming economic scenario, the Ruia brothers are now fast rising from the slump that hit them in late 1990s, which eventually led to their defaulting on payments to debtors. After paying off their debts, they are looking forward to expand their steel, shipping, power and oil & gas businesses.

The third generation is coming to play now. While the elder of Shashi Ruia’s two sons, Prashant has taken over steel, shipping & power division, his brother Anshuman is now steering telecom & construction business. One thing these junior Ruias have inherited is the risk-taking approach that runs in the family. Surely, the adage ‘Once bitten twice shy’ is not applicable in the case of the Ruias. But then, business was never the realm of the weak-hearted either.

It’s all about value
Even after the split, Reliance continues to shine

Dhirubhai Ambani built Reliance Industries from scratch when he founded the Reliance Commercial Corporation with a capital of mere Rs.15,000 and an office of not more that 350 square feet. Dhirubhai structured the company with a number of holding companies and subdivisions. Although his philosophies and strategies to run the company were rock solid, Dhirubhai Ambani left a cloudy succession plan for his two sons, Mukesh & Anil. Mukesh being the eldest, took his father’s chair after Dhirubhai’s death for a while. Anil became the Vice Chairman & MD of Reliance Industries. But it was only matter of time before both siblings realised that they would eventually have to look after their own individual interests. The first signs of an ugly rift between the duo became visible when Anil refused to sign on the balance sheets. And eventually, Reliance Industries was split between the brothers after a truce brokered by their mother Kokilaben. Despite the split, the stocks of both companies regained their positions on the bourses.

While Mukesh got control of the flagship Reliance Industries, younger brother Anil took over Reliance Energy, Reliance Capital & Reliance Infocomm. Though these companies are not in one boat anymore, the legacy of Dhirubhai Ambani stays on. The brothers are on a massive drive to expand, just like their father, who had once famously stated, “Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one’s monopoly.”

‘Reddy’ to move on
Dr. Reddy’s is learning to thrive in tough times

The phase of liberalisation brought innumerable opportunities for Indian pharma players. Thy were filly able to tap the generics markets in Europe & US, and could also avail benefi s accruing from new drug development. One such company is Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, which was founded by eminent scientist Dr. Anji Reddy in 1984 with cash reserves of 40,000. Today the company has revenues of $546 million as per fiscal year 2006. Dr. Reddy’s son in law G. V. Prasad is the CEO while his son Satish Reddy is MD & COO of the company.

The drug discovery programme of Dr. Reddy’s started in 1993, and within a short span of three years, it brought about the outlicensing of an anti-diabetes molecule to Novo Nordisk. The advent of reverse engineering proved to be one of the innovative methods that contributed to the success of Dr. Reddy’s. The company also forayed early into specialty generics and took the litigation route for invalidating existing patents. However, Dr. Reddy has always been a proponent of going the R&D way. Two key focus areas for the company’s research programme are metabolic disorders (obesity & Type 2 Diabetes) and cardiovascular diseases (Atheroscelrosis Restenosis & Dyslipidemia). Huge R&D expenditures have made the Reddys innovators from mere copycats. Currently the company is investing around 6-7% on R&D and has a portfolio of over 145 products marketed globally.

The environment on the international front is getting increasingly adverse. Pricing pressures in the US market have forced Indian companies to divert their attention towards Europe. The company has taken the inorganic route as well with its acquisition of betapharm Group, Germany’s fourth largest pharmaceutical company in March this year for €480 million in cash and Roche’s API business in Mexico for $59 million in 2005. Now Dr. Reddy’s seems ready to take on all challenges, even though it hasn’t yet developed any blockbuster drug.

Paradise reigns in the Brown Fields!
Undeterred by skeptics, Videocon covets M&As

Reflecting the continuity & change in its mission statement, the Videocon Group has moved from a conference room-sized assembly line in 1979 to become a global conglomerate of over Rs.110 billion. To launch his sons in business, the group founder Nandlal Madhavlal Dhoot tied up with Toshiba to manufacture the first Indian world class colour television. Since then the group is striving to be the leader in Indian consumer durable segment.

Though pushed down by the global entrants at the beginning of the liberalization era, Videocon Group has bounced back strongly to take up the challenge. The group now has a strong footage in four key sectors – consumer durables, colour picture tubes (CPT), CPT glass and oil & gas. With its recent acquisition of Thomson, the group has emerged as the world’s largest manufacturer of colour picture tubes. With the promoters holding more than 70% stake in the original company Videocon Industries and around 35% in others, the group companies are run by V. N. Dhoot (his brother Pradeep Kumar is a Director on the board). The share prices of the company have risen to Rs.438 per share in November 2006 from Rs.13.15 in April 2002. As V. N. Dhoot puts it, “The group is more ready than ever for further expansion...” He has launched his son Anirudh (MD, Electrolux) as his successor. In the past 18 months, Videocon has acquired consumer electronic brands like Hyundai, Akai, Electrolux (in India) & Thomson's colour tube business but its hunger fails to die. On October 23, a Videocon-led consortium signed the MoU to acquire Korea’s Daewoo Electronics for $730 million. While Videocon still has a long way to go before it can challenge the global greats, one thing is for sure – it is taking its ‘Indian MNC’ tag quite seriously.

Ji Subhash Zee!
Subhash Chandra has emerged as India’s very own media magnate

They call him the ‘Media Czar’ but we like to call him the ‘Media Crusader’. And not without reason! Be it launching the first private TV channel (Zee TV) or launching DTH service (Dish TV), a cable network (Siti Cable), amusement park (Essel World), Chandra ventured into areas where no one had ever dared to step and created a market for himself and subsequently for others too. After all, tying up with the global media magnate Rupert Murdoch and then taking on his Star Network is no mean feat. Despite being battered by competition and facing steep lows, Subhash Chandra always manages to bounce back. The year 2006 has been a momentous year for this media mogul, as Zee TV traced its way up the TRP charts and Chandra created waves by buying a 50% stake in Ten Sports.

Looking at the empire Chandra has built over the years, many would be surprised to know that he hails from a small town of Hissar in Haryana and a Class 12 dropout who started on his own as a young lad of 19. From a cotton seed trader to becoming the small screen king, Chandra has come a long way. And the recent restructuring of his media business, Zee Telefilms into four separate entities – Zee News Ltd., Siti Cable Network Ltd., Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd. & DTH is being seen as a move to create more value for the shareholders.

He has the staunch support of his brothers Laxmi Goel (handles Zee News Ltd.) & Jawahar Goel (involved with cable & DTH businesses). The involvement of Chandra’s son, Puneet Goenka (Director, Zee Telefilms) in Zee Telefilms has enabled a turnaround in the company. Watch out for more backlashes from this media crusader in the coming days!

Component CzarsWith sound growth strategies, the Kalyani Group is forging ahead

The Kalyani Group is one of the best examples of the growing might of the Indian manufacturing sector. The $1.5 billion company employs over 10,000 employees globally and is the parent company of Bharat Forge, the world's second largest forging company and largest manufacturer of truck front axles. The man-at-arms is Chairman Baba Kalyani, who single-handedly brought out a small scale diesel engine component business from the brink of extinction. The roots of this new business are attached to the component business set up by Neelkantha Kalyani (Baba’s father) nearly 40 years ago. Baba Kalyani diversifi ed the business to a wider spectrum of components. According to the Forbes Magazine, the Kalyanis are one of the 1000 richest men in the world. His son Amit Kalyani is an Executive Director with Bharat Forge.

The company is on a relentless surge for acquisitions; what started as an insignificant acquisition in the form of $9.1 million Federal Forges does not seem to satiate even with big deals such as the $33.5 million buyout of Can Dan Peddinghaus. The company has presence right from China in the East to Western Europe & USA. The success of the Kalyanis has been attributed to their ability to study the market and develop products as and when the market demands them. Their immense confidence for the future is evident from their growth projections, as they are targeting a turnover of $19 billion by 2010.