BUSINESS SPECIAL .................10 Businessmen To Watch Out For

10 Businessmen To Watch Out For





2015 was supposed to be a banner year for corporates. It turned out to be largely forgettable. The economy is growing but companies are still nursing old grouses. That doesn't mean they were idle. Many companies have been reacting to the wheels of the economy turning. Those actions will become visible in 2016. Here is a list of corporate bosses whose attempts to take their companies to new heights will be momentous for their sectors

1 Mukesh Ambani CHAIRMAN, RELIANCE INDUSTRIES

Mukesh Ambani's telecom company Jio is targetting one million subscribers a day in the first 100 days of a possible commercial launch in March-April 2016.Even if Jio meets half that target, it can cause serious damage to incumbents Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. The company made an `employee and friends only' debut earlier this week, issuing subscriptions to 1 lakh of its own people. Jio is said to have drawn lists of high average revenue customers.Incumbents say they remain unnerved by the threat Jio poses. But given that RIL's entry into telecom in 2002 turned the telecom sector on its head, they have much to worry about in 2016.

2 Anil Ambani CHAIRMAN, RELIANCE GROUP

Anil Ambani runs marathons, which calls for running at a patient pace. But he seems to be running a 100 metre sprint in business, to lift his group from huge levels of indebtedness. Ambani is consolidating his telecom business through big mergers and strategic alliances like the one he has with elder brother Mukesh. He is also exiting cash-guzzling businesses -from telecom towers to cement and roads.Where he can -depending on regulatory ceilings -he is diluting equity in favour of foreign partners to further lighten his debt burden. Reliance Infrastructure, meanwhile, is aiming to become a key player in defence. Ambani has a busy year ahead. He will be restructuring his portfolio and consummating deals. He will hope his business is as lean as his waistline in 2016.

3 Vishal Sikka CEO, INFOSYS

Infosys under Sikka's watch has been a bustling company. It has been on an acquisition spree like never before, backed about half a dozen new-age startups (again unprecedented), effected a management reshuffle that saw the rise of new leaders, and perhaps most significantly, launched efforts to change the mindset of every average engineer in the company through the now well-documented `Design Thinking' movement. But 2016 will present Sikka's biggest test yet -bridging the widening gap with larger peers such as TCS and Cognizant. Success will hoist him into the big league and ensure that the inevitable comparisons with Infosys legends such as NR Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani are not out of place.

4 Gautam Adani CHAIRMAN, ADANI GROUP

Gautam Adani, chairman of the $10-billion Adani Group, is poised to have an actionpacked 2016. In logistics, his group is due to commission the Ennore Port terminal and expand the container terminal in Mundra. It would press ahead with buying more port-related infrastructure, possibly on the eastern coast of India. In power, the commissioning of the 670 MW solar power project in Tamil Nadu would make it the largest such project in India. Adani will also begin work on a 1 GW solar park in Mundra. A power plant in Udupi will undergo expansion. The group will also eye a 1,000 mw plus thermal plant in central or western India. Next year might also see Adani try to secure all the clearances for its high-profile Australia mine and railway project and resume work. Adani also plans to rejuvenate his agro business with new variants of the cooking oil brand Fortune and other brands.

5 Ajay Singh CHAIRMAN, SPICEJET

A year ago, SpiceJet was choking under the weight of a severe cash crunch and about to collapse. Today, the low-cost airline is on the road to a full recovery, even making profits. The difference between then and now: change of ownership. Soon after the crisis, SpiceJet changed hands with the Marans of Sun Group passing ownership to co-founder Ajay Singh, a Delhi-based businessman. Singh has big plans for SpiceJet in 2016.He says he is in talks with Boeing and Airbus to buy around 150 planes.A suitor too could be in the horizon once Singh is able to reduce the airline's liabilities and press ahead with the revival.From the looks of it, all the big action in Indian aviation would be centred on Singh and SpiceJet.

6 Nithin Kamath CEO, ZERODHA

Nithin Kamath gave a jolt to the broking industry when he waived off broking charges on cash market trades earlier this month.Zerodha's `zero brokerage' structure has upset the plans of traditional brokers who are trying to keep pace by lowering charges, allowing more trades at the same cost and offering algorithm trading options to their high-volume clients. The success of `zero brokerage' structure would be analysed threadbare by the broking industry over the next one year. Zerodha, on its part, intends to attract more clients. The discount broker has over 96,000 clients contributing to an average daily turnover of `8,000 crore. “We'll shift our focus from traders to investors now,“ says Kamath. Zerodha will also start its mutual fund distribution in January 2016. Kamath, 36, has his hands full in 2016.

7 Arun Kumar FOUNDER, STRIDES ARCOLAB

Arun Kumar, founder and CEO of Bengaluru-based Strides Arcolab, has been quite active with pharma deals. His model of constantly buying and selling assets may leave investors confused, but in the last one year, Strides shares have given them a 42% return. This was made possible by the sale of its only profitable injectible business Agila to US-based Mylan for roughly $1.3 billion. The deal helped clear debts and inject liquidity, though it has run into controversy. Kumar has said his company will now focus on building the generic business in emerging markets, at a time when most Indian drugmakers are looking to the west for growth. Kumar backed his claim by buying a majority stake in Bafna Pharma and Shasun Chemicals. In 2016, Kumar will look to expand in the competitive domestic market and take on pharma powerhouses.

8 Baba Ramdev FOUNDER, PATANJALI AYURVED

For nearly a decade, Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved was dismissed as a small-time ayurveda player. In 2015, it forced some of the biggest consumer goods companies to sit up and take notice.Patanjali Ayurved is now a bon-fide FMCG player, with over 350-plus products spanning noodles, biscuits, corn flakes and juices among other products. Ramdev has forecasted sales of `5,000 crore by 2015-16 from `2,000 crore this year.Operating from a 150-acre Food Park at Haridwar, Ramdev now intends to set up megamarts -exclusive retail hubs -to sell Patanjali products across cities. Sensing the potential of Patanjali, Future Group's Kishore Biyani partnered him in October.Biyani believes Patanjali could “bring in a revolution“. 2016 could be that year.

9 Vijay Shekhar Sharma FOUNDER, PAYTM

Paytm, the mobile wallet and mobile commerce company founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has leapfrogged rivals, but it is yet to break into the big league of digital commerce. The year 2016 might see Sharma mounting moves in that direction. Sharma has a few things going for him. He has a moneybags investor in Alibaba, which has helped him expand in multiple fields -payments, wallet, m-commerce, grocery and more. Paytm is now the most used mobile wallet, with 100 million plus users. Sharma has also shown the smarts. In July, Paytm bagged sponsorship rights for BCCI cricket matches for four years. The next month, it bagged a payment bank licence from RBI. That allows Paytm to offer interest for money deposited from next fiscal and attract more users. In 2016, Sharma will hope the users of his five-year-old company will do more than just pay bills or transfer money and help him take on the big boys of e-commerce.

10 The Bansals CO-FOUNDERS, FLIPKART

As Flipkart enters its ninth year in 2016, expectations are high that co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal will take their e-commerce giant public. The listing would unlock wealth for its 16 investors, including Tiger Global, Naspers and Yuri Milner's DST Global, and a few hundred of its 33,000 employees. Flipkart, which has about 44% of the market, has raised about $3 billion and is valued around $15 billion. In 2015, the company nixed speculation of going public anytime soon. But with the two founders holding just around 7% each of the company, it would be the investors rather than them that make that decision. Amazon, where the Bansals worked before starting Flipkart in 2007, went public within three years of launch. Deep discounts to attract shoppers and the resulting absence of profits have delayed a listing. Even so, could 2016 be the year of listing?

ET31DEC15