India's Fastest Growing Large Companies
Companies with market capitalisation exceeding Rs 1,000 crore that grew the fastest in 2005.

A Dalal Street Fairy Tale
Indiabulls Financial Services' spectacular growth is as mystifying as impressive.

Indiabulls' Gehlaut: Smiling all the way

A gaggle of IIT grads quit cushy jobs, set up a brokerage firm and lived happily ever after. At least that's how Indiabulls Financial Services' story has been so far. In 2000, Sameer Gehlaut and a couple of his batch mates set up Indiabulls, which today is the fastest growing brokerage-cum-consumer finance company. Between April and December 2004, it had revenues of Rs 97.3 crore and net profits of Rs 33 crore; last year in the same period, it grew revenues more than five times to Rs 405.5 crore and earnings to Rs 97.3 crore. Broking accounts for three-fourths of Indiabulls' profits, while the fledgling consumer finance and third-party distribution fetch the rest. Meanwhile, it is stepping up focus on consumer finance and real estate (it is currently developing the land bought from Jupiter Mill and Elphinstone Mill in Mumbai last year for a total of Rs 717 crore). "We have identified (consumer financing as having) 50 times higher growth potential than broking," says 32-year-old Chairman & CEO Gehlaut, whose investors include L.N. Mittal, among others.

-Mahesh Nayak

Gateway Distriparks' Gupta: Providing quality logistics services

The Geyser Guys

In 2004-05, Chennai-based Aban Loyd Chiles had revenues of Rs 297.13 crore and net profits of Rs 51.70 crore. Guess what its figures will be for the financial year just ended? According to analysts at Sharekhan, a research firm, a topline of Rs 490 crore and a bottom line of Rs 110 crore. What's driving growth at this supplier of offshore drilling rigs? The boom in oil and gas exploration. Soaring oil prices and the desperate search for new reserves have jacked up prices of rigs. Recently, Aban entered into a three-year contract with ongc for its rig Aban II for Rs 400 crore. The day rate (or daily rig rentals) for the contract is $85,000 (Rs 38.25 lakh), compared to $27,000 (Rs 12.15 lakh) in the earlier contract. According to Sharekhan analysts, Aban's other rigs (it has 10 in total) are expected to fetch even higher rates when their contracts come up for renewal in 2007 and 2008. One of Aban's subsidiaries, Aban Singapore, is buying a $185-million (Rs 832.5-crore) drilling ship that will drill four wells in West Africa. The day rate: $350,000 (or Rs 525 crore a year). That apart, Aban has placed a Rs 700-crore order with PPL Shipyard of Singapore for constructing a 375-ft-high drilling rig that will become operational by July 2008. With these acquisitions and expected hikes in day rates, Aban could clock (according to Sharekhan) a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 53 per cent for the next three years. That would mean Rs 1,751 crore in revenues by 2009. Talk about hitting a geyser.

-Nitya Varadarajan

Filling In A Big Gap

The logistics industry in India is growing at about 14 per cent a year, but Delhi-based Gateway Distriparks is clipping at 69 per cent a year. How? "There was no quality service provider; we came in and added value to the services," answers Managing Director, Prem Kishan Gupta. The strategy has paid off handsomely for this port-based logistics provider, which operates out of three ports (Vizag, Mumbai and Chennai) and one inland container depot in Haryana. In the first three quarters of 2004-05, Gateway had revenues of Rs 62.9 crore and operating profits of Rs 32 crore. In the same period of last financial year, the figures stood at Rs 106.1 crore and Rs 70 crore, respectively. How impressive is that? Enough to get private equity giant Temasek to pick up a stake in it a year-and-a-half ago.

-Shaleen Agrawal

Shopping For Growth

Been to any big bazaar store lately? if yes, then you already know why parent Pantaloon is on our list. "We doubled growth last year and will do so every year for the next two," says Prashant Desai, Head (Investor Relations) at Pantaloon. Last year alone, Pantaloon went from Rs 1,087 crore to Rs 2,000 crore in revenues. But Pantaloon's promoter Kishore Biyani has a slew of plans unfolding (see Biyani Vs Ambani on page 80), including an all-encompassing home retail chain. By Biyani's own reckoning, Pantaloon's retail empire will be spread over 10 million sq. ft by 2008-that's more than three times the space it covers today.

-Ahona Ghosh

Tapping The Small-town Boom

API's Ansal: Small is beautiful

Over the last four years, when most real estate firms were busy chasing expensive projects in the metros, Ansal Properties & Infrastructure (API)'s Sushil Ansal quietly moved out to tier-II cities. As a result, Ansal was able to "get hold of land at competitive prices" and grow from Rs 156 crore in revenues in the first three quarters of 2004-05 to Rs 224 crore in the same period last year. "It is a wrong conception that buying power in tier-II cities is less. There has been no organised development in these cities in the last 20 years, and which means that consumers had no opportunity to buy," says the man. And how does he pick his tier-II cities? Ansal must be able to set up the first shopping mall in them, he says with a smile.

-Shaleen Agrawal

Boom Ahead-Men At Work

Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC)'s managing director, Alluri Ranga Raju, has a simple growth target: $1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore) by 2009. Surprisingly, he may just get there. NCC has been growing at 50 per cent year-on-year for the last three, upping the topline from Rs 458 crore in 2002-03 to a projected Rs 1,800 crore in 2005-06. "Our order book, at Rs 5,700 crore today, has been growing at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 35 to 40 per cent for the last five years now," says Y.D. Murthy, Senior Vice President (Finance), NCC. What helps is that NCC is into a variety of infrastructure projects, including roads, houses, irrigational and electrical projects. The company was part of a consortium that recently paid Rs 335.25 crore for 5.8 acres of land in Hyderabad's tony Jubilee Hills.

-E. Kumar Sharma

Deccan Chronicle Holdings' Reddy: Making news

The Go-getter From Deccan

It was arguably the first family-owned mainline broadsheet to go public, and is still the #1 English daily in Andhra Pradesh despite the entry of giant The Times of India and renewed challenge from a redesigned and more local The Hindu. Better still, Deccan Chronicle Holdings' Chairman Tikkavarapu Venkatram Reddy, 46, grew revenues 41 per cent and net profit 78 per cent to Rs 165 crore and Rs 32 crore, respectively in 2004-05 over the previous year, and could deliver over 100 per cent jump in revenues and 150 per cent in profits for 2005-06. People who track the company (it also owns The Asian Age and a newly-acquired chain of book stores called Odyssey, and publishes The International Herald Tribune in India) attribute the robust growth to better targeting of advertisers and contributions from the Chennai market, which it entered last year.

-E. Kumar Sharma

Growing Out Of Hyderabad

December 20, 1999: India's most respected corporate house, the Tatas, partner with an obscure Hyderabad-based group called GVK to form TajGVK Hotels & Resorts. Its first full-year revenues: Rs 53.65 crore and a net profit of Rs 4.34 crore. Fast forward to 2005-06: TajGVK will close the year with a topline of Rs 185 crore and a bottom line of Rs 45 crore. That's a growth of 60 per cent for revenues and 100 per cent for net profits over the previous year. No doubt, the hospitality industry is booming, but TajGVK is doing its bit too to accelerate growth. For instance, it is now moving out of Hyderabad to other cities, and plans on having 1,387 rooms by 2008-09, compared to 683 now.

-E. Kumar Sharma

Private Label Retailer

Trent's Tata: Riding the retail boom

We should have around 100 stores by 2010, subject to availability of suitable retail spaces," says Noel Tata, Managing Director of Trent. Despite the rider thrown in by the media-shy Tata, there's no doubt that his retail company is on the fast track. Its flagship brand continues to be the private label retailer Westside, which has 23 stores across 13 cities, but new formats and brands are coming under the Trent fold. Its first hypermarket store, Star India Bazaar, was launched in Ahmedabad in October 2004, and will soon be going to other major cities. Trent, which will likely finish 2005-06 with revenues of Rs 450 crore, up 67 per cent over the previous year, also acquired a 76 per cent stake in Chennai-based books-to-music retailer, Landmark. To fuel Westside's growth, Trent has struck a deal with DLF to anchor its next 12 malls.

-Ahona Ghosh

Television's Newsmaker

In 2004-05, Television Eighteen (TV18) India clocked Rs 81.4 crore in revenues and Rs 19.5 crore in net profits. But between April and December 2005, it racked up Rs 93.42 crore in sales and Rs 31.45 crore in earnings. Not surprising. From a single-channel broadcaster until recently, tv18 has become the owner of four channels (CNBC India, CNN-IBN, Awaaz and IBN 7). "Within a few months of the launch of CNN-IBN, we have become the dominant player in the English news segment and soon with the re-launch of IBN 7 (formerly Channel 7 of Jagran TV) we plan to increase our share of the Hindi news segment as well," says Haresh Chawla, CEO. CNBC India is still the money-spinner at tv18. But on the brighter side for Chawla, there may soon be a challenger from within (read: CNN-IBN).

-Kushan Mitra

India's Fastest Growing
Mid-sized Companies
Companies with market value between Rs 500 crore and Rs 1,000 crore that grew the fastest in 2005.

Sweet Spots Of Growth
Opto Circuits loves its niches.

Opto Circuits' Ramnani: A reason to smile

When this writer met medical equipment manufacturer Opto Circuits' Chairman and Managing Director Vinod Ramnani five days after a successful Rs 100-crore IPO (initial public offering), he still had a smile on his face. Job well done, for sure, but for the 57-year-old Ramnani, it should have been a foregone conclusion. After all, the Bangalore-based Opto Circuits has not only grown at a CAGR of 30 per cent over the last four years, but also rewarded shareholders (its maiden IPO of Rs 10.7 crore was in early 2000) every year with generous payouts (30 per cent-plus) and bonus shares. More importantly for the new investors, Opto doesn't show any signs of slowing down.

Set up in 1992, Opto has found a way of turning global disasters into opportunities for itself. When the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) scare broke out in Asia in 2003-04, shaving millions of dollars off regional economies, Opto bagged a Rs 12-crore order from the Singapore government for its digital thermometers. Similarly, after the US attacked Iraq, Opto found an opportunity to sell to the coalition forces, specially designed blood warmers that it makes. (Since blood and IV fluids are stored at specific low temperatures, they must be warmed to 38 degree Fahrenheit to prevent thermal shock to the patient.) Increased security at American airports in the wake of the 9/11 attacks of 2001 has meant more demand for Opto's sensors that go into baggage scanners. That's also partly because Opto is one of the few manufacturers approved by the Federal Aviation Authority of America.

The new opportunities didn't just land up at Opto. When founded in the early 90s, Opto was a manufacturer of medical electronic devices and monitoring equipment (think all the display gadgets at a standard intensive care unit). It added new products through acquisitions. In 2002, it acquired the digital thermometer division of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. That year too, it acquired us-based Palco to sell oximetry products (these are body sensors, some of which can be clipped onto a finger) under its Mediaid brand. Later in the same year, it picked up a stake (now at 60 per cent) in Advanced Micronic Devices-a marketer of different medical equipment-to strengthen its distribution in India (just a quarter of Opto's revenues come from domestic sales). And in January this year, it acquired EuroCor, a Germany-based manufacturer of coronary drug eluting stents (these medicine-coated stents), for Rs 59.91 crore. Opto will have to take on biggies such as Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific in the market, but Ramnani is unfazed: "There is room for every player in the market."

Ramnani plans to use the IPO proceeds to beef up Opto's R&D and marketing. How about future acquisitions? "We will continue to acquire companies in specific niche segments," he says. Quite clearly, Opto is a company to watch.

-Venkatesha Babu

Power's Live-wire Contractor

Jyoti's Nayak: Plenty of business, but eluctant to bite off more than it can chew

After having spent 27 years in the shadows of bigger rivals like Larsen & Toubro, Mumbai-based Jyoti Structures is coming out on its own. For the financial year ended March 31, 2006, Jyoti is likely to report Rs 700 crore in revenues and by the end of current fiscal, Rs 1,000 crore. "It's the best time for the industry. Over the next six years, the power sector will see as much activity as it saw over the last 50," says Santosh Nayak, Senior VP (Finance & Operations), Jyoti, which is the only company in India after L&T pre-qualified to set up 800-kv transmission lines and 400-kv sub-stations. The company currently has an order book of about Rs 1,300 crore, but plans to build it up to Rs 2,000 crore by March next year. The stock market has also woken up to the Jyoti opportunity. In the last year and a quarter, since Reliance Energy Investment acquired a 14.47 per cent stake in Jyoti, the stock has risen nearly five times. "Getting business is easy, but we don't want so much business that our ability to execute gets affected," says Nayak. Customers must love Jyoti's growth mantra.

-Mahesh Nayak

Eye On The Infrastructure Pie

For a long time after it was founded in 1990, Delhi-based era Constructions focussed on small projects such as drainage, sewerage, and some airport-related work. But a few years ago, it switched focus to bigger infrastructure projects and found growth clipping. "We simply diversified into highways, railways and other infrastructure projects," says Jawahar Lal Khushu, Director. In 2004-05, Era posted Rs 157.50 crore in revenues, but hopes to do Rs 300 crore for last year. "We are constantly upgrading capacity since all infrastructure projects are large ones," says Khushu. But he says the company is concerned about protecting its profit margins in the face of volatile prices of cement and steel.

-Shaleen Agrawal

Lifted By LPG

Did you know that Varun Shipping is the world's second-largest operator of mid-sized LPG carriers or that it owns 76 per cent of the LPG-carrying capacity of Indian commercial fleet? LPG is also the reason why the Mumbai-based shipping company has a generous wind to its topline. "As India increasingly adopts LPG as a fuel source, Varun will continue to grow," says Managing Director, Yudhishthir D. Khatau, who expects revenues of Rs 390 crore for the financial year just ended. Varun is already gearing up for the coming growth. It is raising new funds through a forthcoming issue in Singapore, which it will use to enhance its fleet.

-Kushan Mitra

An Indian Software Brand-Really

It's not often that a home-grown vendor steals a march over a global giant and continues to gain on its lead. Subex Systems, a Rs 116-crore Bangalore-based telecom software solutions company, has done just that by edging out hp as the world's largest fraud management solutions firm (by installed base). The announcement capped a strong growth year for a company that many see as the next big product marketer from India after i-flex. Subex, on its part, is tapping a $10-million (Rs 45-crore) GDR issue to fund its future growth, which will include acquisitions. "We've just begun to tap into what is a massive global opportunity," is what CEO Subash Menon, who is in a silent period due to its annual results, had told BT sometime back.

-Rahul Sachitanand

Virtual Software Maker

Modesty is not a problem V. Chandrasekaran suffers from. "Being the best-known specialist in this space, we are able to compete successfully with large vendors," say Aztec Software's CEO, explaining why his Rs 198.23-crore (2005-06) product engineering company gets to work with most of the top five global software majors. Among Aztec's future plans: A foray into mobile software.

-Rahul Sachitanand

Emco's Jain: His company is growing at 50 per cent a year

A Full Pipeline

Can just one new plant change a company's fortunes? D. Datar, Vice President (Corporate Affairs), Man Industries, thinks so. "I think we planned our expansion perfectly. By the time the plant started operations, global energy demands were rising and so was the demand for pipes to transport them," he says by way of explaining why Man's topline is expected to jump 70 per cent to Rs 850 crore in 2005-06. "By 2007-08, we want to be a Rs 2,000-crore company," says Datar. The company has beefed up its Middle-Eastern operations and expects international orders to play a vital role in its future.

-Kushan Mitra

Transformed By Power

Like Jyoti Structures, Emco Ltd is also riding the boom in the power sector. The 41-year-old-company, which makes electrical transformers and tamper-proof electronic energy meters, is growing more than 50 per cent a year. In 2004-05, it had revenues of Rs 236 crore, which swelled to Rs 350 crore last year. Rajesh Jain, Emco's Chairman & Managing Director, says that he's not letting any opportunity pass by. "We have identified three or four companies in Europe and the us for acquisition," he says. Last year, Emco's exports jumped 14 per cent, thanks to orders from Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia. But Emco's big leap is yet to come. It is planning to set up two power plants in Maharashtra.

-Ahona Ghosh

Scaling Up

Marksans Pharma wouldn't have made this list, but for a merger. In March last year, Mark Saldhana's Glenmark Labs announced its merger with bulk drug maker TASC Pharma and, voila, Marksans was born. The company, however, is loath to be called another Indian generics player, and has made considerable investments in new technologies. A new Criticare division operates in the area of bio-technology, while another division called Cerebella is focussed on neuro-medicine. That apart, "we have concentrated extensively on our core products," says Jitendra Sharma, CFO, Marksans. In 2004-05, the company logged net sales of Rs 143.70 crore and a net profit of Rs 15 crore, but-thanks to the merger-the numbers have jumped: to Rs 206 crore in topline and Rs 21 crore in net profits for April-December 2005.

-Kushan Mitra

Corporate Miller

Rei agro is barely nine years old, but it already claims to be the largest processor of basmati rice in the world. The Delhi-based company, which will clock Rs 900-1,000 crore in sales compared to Rs 845 crore in 2004-05, processes all varieties of basmati (from premium to broken), has taken market share away from smaller players. "Almost 70 per cent of the volume is with unorganised players, so there's immense potential for large, focussed corporate players," says REI's Managing Director, Sundip Jhunjhunwaala. Being a corporate player meant that REI could improve the milling process and develop the ability to invest in the ageing of the stock so that it could deliver mature basmati to consumers. Obviously, REI has played its cards well.

-Shaleen Agrawal

India's Fastest Growing
Small-cap Companies
Companies with market capitalisation less than Rs 500 crore that grew the fastest in 2005.

M&A Does It

Balasubramanian: A tech firm that M&A built

How's this for growth? net sales of Rs 59.96 crore in 2003-04 that zooms to Rs 340 crore the next year, and is now slated to touch Rs 1,000 crore. So, just what does Chennai-based Teledata Informatics do? It might look like it prints money, but Teledata is actually an ERP vendor for shipping and education. Founded by a group of former merchant navy engineers in 1990, Teledata claims to be the only shipping software provider in Asia, although there are about eight players globally. "We want to rule the Asian market," says Managing Director K. Padmanabhan A lot of Teledata's growth is due to its acquisitions (total 13; nine last year alone) in the US and Singapore, among others. Chairman K. Balasubramanian's plan is to up revenues to-hold your breath-$1 billion by 2008.

-Nitya Vardarajan

Crew's Oberoi: China is no competition

The India Advantage

Whenever one of Crew Bos products' big customers like gap and Fossil thinks of outsourcing design, it usually first thinks of its India vendor than a Chinese supplier. Or so says Crew's 45-year-old Managing Director, Tarun Oberoi. "China may be good at volume production, but when it comes to creative manufacturing, it is India and Vietnam that buyers prefer," he says. That differentiation has allowed Crew to carve out a biggish niche for itself in fashion accessories and home decoration products, and push growth. The Gurgaon-based exporter's revenues in April-December 2005 jumped 79 per cent and profits, 123 per cent over the same period the previous year. With more buyers keen to develop an alternative to China, Oberoi doesn't expect growth to be a problem. "We have now reached a platform where we can sustain ourselves and chase further growth," he says.

-Shaleen Agrawal

Tapping Global SMEs

Helios' Muralikrishna: Willing to grow with small SME deals

Its hi-profile bid for Vmoksha Technologies in May 2005 for Rs 85 crore hangs fire, but Chennai's it company, Helios & Matheson, thinks there are plenty more opportunities around. Global smes, for example. "These companies hesitate going to large offshore vendors because their deal sizes are small, but we are willing to grow with them," says Managing Director G.K. Muralikrishna. H&M's holy grail: $100 million in revenues in the next 24 months.

-Nitya Varadarajan

A First On Its Platter

India is home to the world's largest rice milling plant, with a capacity to process 150 metric tonnes of rice per hour. Set up by KRBL, the Delhi-based marketer of India Gate basmati brand, "this integrated plant will serve as a role model for other rice mills in India", boasts its Director Priyanka Mittal. Once the mill is fully commissioned, it will push KRBL's revenues to about Rs 1,200 crore in 2008-09, compared to Rs 546 crore for April-December 2005.

-Pallavi Srivastava

The Cable Guy

Kei industries makes everything from power cables to telephone cables to stainless steel wires. With its consumer industries booming, KEI is on a clip too. For the first three quarters of last financial year, its revenues grew 48 per cent to Rs 207.2 crore and operating profits, 128 per cent (to Rs 30.3 crore) over the same period in 2004-05. "We took our resource utilisation to optimal levels, and operating margins went up," explains KEI's CMD, Anil Gupta.

-Shaleen Agrawal

Moving Vertically

Lloyd electric & engineering may soon need a new name. Starting out as a manufacturer of heat exchanger coils for air conditioners, the Punj group company now makes complete ACs for companies such as Samsung. The plan now, says CEO A.K. Roy, is to move into TVs, DVD players and washing machines. "The demand for home appliances is going to boom," explains Roy, who expects revenues to touch Rs 550 crore in 2006-07 from Rs 325 crore last year.

-Shaleen Agrawal

Derisking Growth

In India's crowded pharma industry, the Rs 200-crore Surya Pharmaceuticals has decided not to be just another bulk drug and formulations manufacturer. Instead, it's switching focus to crams (contract research and manufacturing services). It has bagged orders worth Rs 390 crore, and in response is setting up its fifth manufacturing facility in Jammu. "We have a 2008 target of Rs 520 crore," reveals company President, Sanjeev Sachdev.

-Pallavi Srivastava

A Different Box Now

Zenith computers may not be the largest hardware player in India, but it is the largest Indian manufacturer of laptops. "We are focussing more on laptops as desktops are a low-margin business," says Raj Saraf, Zenith's CMD. In 2004-05, Saraf says, Zenith grew its notebooks business 300 per cent and last year, by another 200 per cent. That has taken its revenues to Rs 325 crore from Rs 280 crore. Starting July, Zenith will also make LCD monitors.

-Ahona Ghosh

Switching It On

Two years ago, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDC) gave Asian Electronics a Rs 3-crore contract to light up 3 lakh households in Nashik. Impressed by Asian's performance, MSEDC has now asked it to do so in all rural households in Maharashtra. Asian, a Rs 450-crore company, has also tied up with Westinghouse to launch a range of lighting products and fans in India. Asian's plans: Double revenues by next year.

-Pallavi Srivastava

Small But Focussed

In an era of billion-dollar it companies, Bangalore-based Sonata Software's Rs 150 crore (projected) revenues for 2005-06, look worryingly small. But B. Ramaswamy, President & MD, says his firm has what some of the bigger players don't: An ability to build long-term relationships with key customers (Microsoft in Sonata's case). "We are customer-focussed, so there is no dearth of opportunities for us," says Ramaswamy. Not a bad strategy to follow.

-Rahul Sachitanand

HOW WE DID IT

STEP 1: Shortlisting

Only listed companies (BSE or NSE) were considered. A cut-off market capitalisation of Rs 100 crore (December 31, 2005) and a cut-off sales revenue of Rs 100 crore (between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2005) were enforced. A total of 595 companies made the cut. Only companies with positive operating and net profit figures were considered. Period under consideration: the four quarters of calendar year 2005; i.e. January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2005.

STEP 2: Adjustments

The operating profit (PBDT for banks and finance companies, and PBDIT for others) and net profit figures have been arrived at after discounting non-recurring income.

STEP 3: Measuring Growth

Growth was measured as a factor of net sales (operating income for banks and finance companies), operating profit, and net profit. The weightages assigned were 40 per cent for net sales, and 30 per cent each for operating and net profits; these were further split equally across four quarters (i.e. 10 per cent for net sales for each quarter and so on). A growth of over 60 per cent fetches the maximum possible score; a growth below 20 per cent, the minimum possible score; and a growth between 20 per cent and 60 per cent, a proportionate score.

STEP 4: Sanity Check

Only companies that showed a growth higher than 20 per cent on all parameters on an annual basis were included.

STEP 5: The List

The listing was broken up to factor in size. The companies are categorised according to their market cap, and not revenues like last year. In a booming stock market, it seemed to make more sense to categorise companies according to their market cap. Thus, there are three lists-one of companies with m-cap higher than Rs 1,000 crore, the second of companies with m-cap between Rs 500 crore and Rs 1,000 crore, and the third of companies with m-cap lower than Rs 500 crore. Eventually, 26 small companies, 24 mid-sized companies and 77 large companies (but only 50 listed) made the grade.