Hot potato

Just when people were wondering who would succeed B. K. Birla and his Rs 4,500 crore empire, the tycoon surprised everyone by indicating tha...

Just when people were wondering who would succeed B. K. Birla and his Rs 4,500 crore empire, the tycoon surprised everyone by indicating that his talented grand daughter Vidula Khaitan may be an anointed one. He has been quietly supporting and encouraging her to acquaint herself with the management of business. A young graduate from the Indian Business School in Hyderabad, Vidula has also been taking a keen interest in Kesoram Industries, which is run by her mother Manjushree. And is thus leading to talk that she could soon take over. This may well include other cement companies of the group and that too as a stepping-stone to higher places. Meanwhile, BKs other grand child Kumar Mangalam Birla has his hands full. He is currently not very thrilled with his newly-acquired and expanded cement business either. Perhaps, he would happily hand over the management of the cement business to someone else and who better than his own cousin, Vidula. Voila! Kumar Mangalam8217;s anxiety includes the L038;T8217;s cement business which he acquired and renamed Cemco. Most cement units are overstaffed by today8217;s new standards. Thanks to a VRS scheme, 427 employees have left L038;T8217;s cement business, which made the tycoon happy, until he realised that only 70 of them were from the core cement business. This is bad news for Mangalam, who was happy being the largest cement maker in the country but did not expect to become the largest as far as number of employees was concerned as well! Will Vidula soon have to manage this hot potato?

More Multiplexes

Considering that quite a few multiplexes in Jaipur and Ahmedabad have been closing down, over the past few months, Deven Chachra8217;s Satyam Cineplexes has been doing pretty well for itself. The tycoon off course gives the credit of keeping his business alive and running to his innovative marketing exercises like airing cricket matches during the World Cup etc. Chachra has not only been able to survive bad times but has also kept his eyes open and has managed to grab an opportunity that others have missed. When Sahara8217;s Subrata Roy, thrilled with the success of his shopping mall in Gurgaon decided to come out with more of them throughout the country, Chachra jumped at the chance. What better way to fulfill his plans of setting up a hundred screens by the year 2006, than to set them up in Roy8217;s malls. So now the tycoon will now setting up his Satyam Cineplexes through an all India tie up with Sahara. Chachra had to choose Sahara as the only other company coming out with malls was the Essel Group which already had its own multiplex brand. The other places targeted by Chachra include Mumbai for which he is holding talks with the Rahejas and the Kalpatru Group to open four multiplexes. While in Pune and Chandigarh, he8217;s trying hard for a foreign partner. For his projects in Rohini and Noida he has tied up with Unitech and spent Rs.25 crore on the projects. If you think this is a big deal then you8217;ll like this, Chahra has plans to spend Rs 250 crore in India out of which Rs 82 will be spent on Delhi alone!

Dilip Cherian, runs a public relations firm Perfect Relations and can be contacted at dilipcherianhotmail.com