Kapil Dev: Packing a punch, still

Four endorsements and a directorship are hardly enough to bestow super-brand status on a celebrity. Except when the person in question is Kapil Dev, who last played cricket for India almost a decade ago. Today, the 43-year-old former cricketer, the son of a small-town timber merchant, and the Indian team's captain when it won the World Cup one summer evening, 19 years ago, is brand ambassador to set max, Kinetic Boss, and Standard Chartered, a celebrity model for Timex, and a council director on the board of Sahara India.

Two ambassadorships came Dev's way after he was named Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century at a glittering televised ceremony at Wembley Stadium, London in July this year. The award came after two years Dev spent as a pariah of sorts: he had vehemently denied his involved in the match fixing controversy that rocked the cricket world, but the whispers refused to go away. Then came the Wisden recognition and man and brand were born again.

And how! Today, Dev doesn't go about his marketing responsibilities the way other celebs do: appear in an ad campaign; stroll through an event or two; sport the logo somewhere. ''Whatever I do,'' says the man with the honesty that has become his trademark over the years, ''I put my mind and heart into it''. ''I won't sign on with a brand and charge them just to show my face.'' The companies in question are, in one short word, thrilled.

When it signed him on in June this year, for instance, television channel set max did not expect Dev to offer to tag along with the sales team when it met prospective advertisers. In a country as cricket crazy as India, the results have been impressive. ''Kapil is enhancing value for the channel,'' gushes Rajat Jain, Executive Vice President, Sony Entertainment Television. And in the case of Kinetic, Dev started off with a simple contract to endorse a mobike called Boss, but is now considering investing some of his little all-the buzz puts his net worth at Rs 30-crore-in the company. ''If I can go ahead and invest my money, I will be able to go to customers and the trade as part and parcel of the company,'' explains Dev. ''Not merely its face.''

Dev may never be as big a money-spinner as Sachin Tendulkar-the takings from all his endorsements are reported to be under Rs 10 crore-and his other business interests, in-stadia lighting, syndicated features, and camera units while successful, aren't really significant, but here's the nub: much after his cricketing heydays, even after the recent allegations concerning his role in fixing matches, Kapil remains relevant to brands, far more than the only other Indian cricketing legend of our times, Sunil Gavaskar does.

So, what explains his born-again popularity? It could be that Dev is the flavour-of-the-season in the run up to the World Cup and who better to be f-o-t-s than a man who has just been crowned Indian Cricketer of the Century. Or it could be that old thing about nothing being able to keep a good man down. After all, not too many Indian celebrities can claim to personify Timex's brand proposition to a T-It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

-Shailesh Dobhal

POLARIS
The Trouble With O
Just why are investors unhappy with Polaris Software?

Arun Jain, CMD Polaris Software: It's all about respect

Polaris software's chairman & managing director, Arun Jain has always craved the respect that seemed reserved for the likes of Infosys and Wipro. Polaris did appear worthy of being clubbed with the biggies: it isn't small, it registered revenues of Rs 293.8 crore in 2001-02; it has a spanking campus at Navalur in Chennai, and four other offices across India, even 14 abroad; and it is known for its people friendly policies-it ranked 21 in the last edition of Business Today's Best Employers in India study (See March 3, 2002).

Jain seemed to have hit upon the perfect formula to get that respect when he announced the merger of Orbitech Solutions (Citigroup owns 93.25 per cent of the company and gives it 90 per cent of its business) with Polaris in May this year. The move, claims Jain, transports Polaris to "a new orbit in banking and financial services." ''We are not competing with Infosys and Wipro.''

The initial swap ratio agreed to by the boards of the two companies after a due diligence carried out by audit firm Ernst & Young was 25 shares of Orbitech for 14 of Polaris. Soon after, in July 2002, Citigroup rationalised the rates it could be charged by another of its group companies, i-Flex, that supplied solutions to it, soon after the company went for an IPO, scaling them down by between 16 per cent and 24 per cent. Jain anticipated a similar fate for Orbitech and asked E&Y to carry out a second due diligence. Meanwhile, the company announced its results for the first half of the year-revenues of $40 million, Rs 196 crore and a earnings of $ 13 million, Rs 63.7 crore, and declared a dividend of $15 million, a move that would benefit Citigroup. Jain claims the dividend isn't an issue-Citigroup accounts for 30 per cent of Polaris' business and a good working relationship, to reiterate the obvious, is preferable-and says ''the merger was motivated by what OrbiTech could bring to the table in the future, not its existing cash reserves''. Jain's desire to drive the merger through could also stem from Polaris' failure to effect a similar deal with New Jersey-based Data Inc. in September 2000.

Still, the events were enough for E&Y to revise its valuation of Orbitech from $210 million (Rs 1,008 crore) to $188 million (Rs 802.4 crore) and set a new swap ratio of 42.65 shares of Polaris for every 100 shares of OrbiTech. And Citigroup's voting rights have been capped at 29.9 per cent. Although, Polaris does come out on top, investors have battered its scrip, from a high of Rs 279 when the merger was announced in May to Rs 147 on November 1. While most analysts were predicting an easy integration given the relationship between Polaris and Citigroup, recent events have made them change their minds. DSP Merrill Lynch predicts serious integration issues in the near term but admits that Polaris could emerge stronger in the long-term. Sure looks like Jain will have to wait some time for that respect.

-Nitya Varadarajan