Karsanbhai Patel’s ride to being worth Rs 2,000 crore was no joy ride. But now, the King has renounced his title and handed over the torch of succession to his sons. As age is catching up, he is willing his sons to carry this burden from now on. Nirma’s boardroom is seeing some new designations; the tycoon is now the non-executive Chairman, while his elder son Rakesh Patel, a management graduate, has been made the vice-president. He will be looking after procurement, production, logistics and HR functions. Karsanbhai’s younger son Hiren Patel who is a chemical engineer, is now heading the marketing and finance functions from his post of managing director. The tycoon though, has not really retired. He has simply handed over the FMCG segment of his enterprise to his sons. He now plans to focus on the pharma tough-to-tackle segment with his new acquisition, the earlier ailing, Core Healthcare. So perhaps ageing patriarchs, don’t actually ever fade away.Value MultiplierGautam Adani’s phenomenal growth story, the Adani Group, is now making strides in the new buzz industry—special economic zones. The tycoon is keen on banking on the potential of Mundra Port and his SEZ because of its strategic location and proximity to West Asia and Pakistan. The Gujarat Adani Port Ltd is expected to go public in three years and already it has a slew of interested investors including the Govt of Singapore, 3i and a number of other private equity investors who are expected to acquire stakes worth $100 million in the company. The magnate has confirmed that talks are on with various investors regarding the deal. However, he also specified that there was still no final word on these deals. Despite a slow start, things are moving with speed as the company’s valuations improved after work on the second container terminal began at the port. The tycoon had earlier concluded a transaction whereby the first container terminal was sold to P&O Ports in what was India’s largest port sector sale of $195 million. An advantage to the tycoon in this deal is that although the sale gave control of the terminal to Dubai Ports World, GAPL is still in control of the dry bulk and liquid bulk operations at the port, earning a 10% royalty for the company. The acquisition of the second container terminal at the port has given the tycoon just the opportunity required to strike out on his own as he is of the view of running the port himself instead of selling it.
