Making new tracks

The conservative Dabur family had surprised all when it ventured beyond the FMCG lane last November to buy 11.19 stake in Punjab Tractors Ltd PTL.

The conservative Dabur family had surprised all when it ventured beyond the FMCG lane last November to buy 11.19 stake in Punjab Tractors Ltd PTL. But market watchers who thought that the family8217;s tractor foray was only a financial investment were in for more surprise when the family raised its stake to 12.5 in less than 6 months to come close to the 15 mark that requires an open offer.

The reasons for VC Burman8217;s enhanced interest in the company, however, are becoming increasingly clear now. If the developments in the last board meeting are any indication, the tycoon appears to be headed for management control at PTL.

Acting in concert with the biggest shareholder Actis the private equity fund holds 29, Burman has managed to replace S.K. Tuteja as Chairman with his own nominee P D Narang.

What seems to have worked for the tycoon is that Actis already had a grouse against the present management over the sale of PTL8217;s stake in Swaraj Mazda to Sumitomo even as the private equity fund had made an open offer for it.

Speculation is rife that the disgruntled Actis is planning to sell all or a part of its stake to the Burmans. Despite the 8216;big change8217; at the top completed at the last board meet, observers believe, the tycoon is still some way off 8216;complete control8217;, given that Narang will only be the non-executive Chairman, and actual management control will remain in the hands of Yash Mahajan, who will continue to be the Vice Chairman and Managing Director.

But now that the tycoon has given clear signal about his 8216;control8217; ambitions, it may be only a matter of time before he finally slips his own man into the driver8217;s seat.

Copycat growth

Software tycoon Atul Nishar knows that in the competitive software space one needs to be alert to both organic and inorganic growth opportunities.

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Just after opening a new development center in Pune, whose capacity is to be ramped up subsequently, Nishar8217;s

Hexaware Ltd is planning to open new centers in South and East. Centers figuring at the top of Nishar8217;s next round of

expansion are Hyderabad, Bangalore in the South and Bhubaneswar and Kolkata in the East.

The tycoon has lined up both the funds and an ambitious headcount increase agenda. Once all this is in place, Nishar expects his total head count to reach 10,000 in three years.

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As far as acquisitions are concerned, Nishar is concentrating on small companies overseas in the size range of 10-15 million. He seems particularly interested in companies in the domains of enterprise solutions and applications management.

Nishar has already readied a cash chest for his acquisition by selling 14.9 of his stake in Hexaware to US-based venture capital firm General Atlantic Partners for 67 million. Grapevine has it that he is currently evaluating a few targets in the US and UK markets and is confident of closing a few deals during the year.

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