Ygyan for the tycoon

Kumar Mahadeva is taking good advantage of his company Cognizant Technology Solutions’ 60% plus growth in revenues in the fourth quarte...

Kumar Mahadeva is taking good advantage of his company Cognizant Technology Solutions’ 60% plus growth in revenues in the fourth quarter. He first announced an expansion of office premises along with an additional 4,000 people to be employed and now he has acquired a Pune-based company. The tycoon seems to be making acquisitions into a habit, considering he just acquired ACES just last year. Ygyan Consulting will be his first this year, and will provide assistance in its SAP practices and cross sell its services to its client base in the UK, Singapore and India. Meanwhile those at Ygyan are rather

happy with the deal as they hope to get the chance to leverage their skills through this move. Even though the tycoon has announced he will be retiring this year, he has proved yet again that he hasn’t lost his touch for business movements just yet.

Liberty changes strategy

The great Indian shoe tycoon has decided to split his manufacturing and retailing divisions. This is a result of his year long restructuring exercise. Liberty Shoes will float a separate subsidiary called Liberty Retail Revolutions Ltd, in which Liberty Shoes will hold a majority stake of 51%, while a group company, will hold the remaining 49% along with other individual promoters. This will help the tycoon set up a chain of 24 exclusive, company owned and managed stores across the country by September 2005. And while his old Liberty Shoes will focus on manufacturing processes, Liberty Retail Revolutions will focus on retail. Yet one more tycoon goes the retail way on his own. Incidentally Adarsh Gupta had initially decided that there would be no changes in the company’s existing retail presence but soon began to exit from multi brand outlets, leaving 1,000 of them as their sales were usually below Rs 5 lakh annually. The tycoon will even expand retailing globally by encouraging retail sales via Wal Mart outlets and in Singapore too.

Setting a precedent

Anu Aga is now keener than ever before to pursue EPC contracts. Having recently set up a subsidiary in Hong Kong to tap into business opportunities from the Asia Pacific region she is now busy dipping her fingers into the domestic EPC business. The tycoon just got herself a Rs 74.57 crore EPC contract to set up a 25 MW coalbased captive power plant in UP for Kanoria Chemicals. This was of course no surprise considering Kanoria’s previous plant was also done by her. That incidentally was the country’s first EPC contract. Meanwhile, the tycoon is getting her daughter ready to takeover from her in September. The only other thing that will currently be diverting Aga’s attention from her EPC focus will be her 50-100 MW capacity power plants. With so much on, Aga is proving that she may be leaving her post but her passion for her work is still very much intact.

Dilip Cherian, runs Perfect Relations. Send your insider dope to dilipcherian@now-india.net.in