The Compulsive Acquirer
A profile of Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises.
By Naagesh Ayyagary

There is a cold, hard, 'we-mean-business' feel you get when you walk into Sunil Mittal's office. The source could be the 800-year old Qutab Minar which overshadows his office; the elaborate glass-and-wood sculpture housing a map of the subcontinent in the foyer; or the simple fact that the meeting rooms are called Sultanate. Aggression, not subtlety, is the leitmotif. And it's not altogether out of place in the den of an individual who wants to rule India's telecom sector.

That isn't an articulated goal for Mittal or his company, but scratch lightly, and it's there, beneath the surface -- a subcutaneous blob of ambition and aggression that manifests itself sporadically. Like in the March, 2000, acquisition by Bharti Televentures (a 61 per cent subsidiary of Bharti Telecom, itself a 94.7 per cent subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises, of which Mittal and his family own 98 per cent) the company that holds together Mittal's telecom empire, of a 75.5 per cent stake in Chennai cellular-operator, Skycell, and the November, 1999, acquisition of a little over 51 per cent stake in Karnataka- and Andhra Pradesh- circle cellular operator JT Mobile.

The CEO as a climber
Many years back, Sunil Mittal was just the second of three sons of a provincial politician and freedom-fighter from Ludhiana called Satpal Mittal. Having moved base to Delhi 21 years back, he was one of the largest importers and resellers of portable gensets in the country. And 15 years back, his company, Bharti Telecom, was a manufacturer of telephones of the push-button variety, and made its money by supplying to the Department of Telecommunications (DOT). Detractors allege that it was the family's political connections that helped it land the DOT contract.

Indeed, till 1993, when Harshad Mehta named Satpal and Sunil Mittal as the people who brokered his alleged Rs 1 crore pay-off, the Bharti group was perceived to be one of those business houses that flourish because of their political nexus.

However, since 1994, when Bharti Cellular won the licence for Delhi, and Bharti Telenet, the licence for Himachal Pradesh and the basic one in Madhya Pradesh, Mittal has succeeded in changing the perception about the group. Agrees Vinay Rai, 50, Chairman and CEO, Usha Group, whose group company Koshika Telecom holds the cellular licences for Uttar Pradesh (east and west), Bihar, and Orissa. He adds: ''Respectability also comes from performance. The image the Bharti group has today is very different from what it had four, may be five, years back. Today it is seen as a professional group that has a clear idea of where it is headed.'' Avers Arun Seth, 48, Managing Director, BT Worldwide, the group's joint venture partner in three businesses: ''I have seen Mittal's style change over the years--he has been able to morph from pure entrepreneur to pure professional.'' Mittal seems to have achieved this by concentrating on the business. Says he: ''Much of what was said about me then was media hype; the Harshad Mehta episode was what people associated us with for a while, but once it was proved that there was no truth in what was being said, everything blew over.'' Seconds Uday Punj, 38, Director, Punj-Lloyd, the company that helped construct Bharti's land-line infrastructure in Madhya Pradesh: ''Sunil comes across as a professional. I've no cause to sit in judgement.''

The CEO as an ally
Mittal hasn't just been content to forge formal alliances. When Hutchison Whampoa acquired a 49 per cent stake in Delhi operator Sterling Cellular, recognising the threat the company posed to his plans of being top dog in the telecom businesses, he is said to have approached BPL Telecom's Rajeev Chandrashekar with the proposal for a loose alliance.

Mittal has also been the architect of a group structure that is aimed at optimising reach, control, and access to funds. Bharti Enterprises sits atop this four-layered structure that spans equipment manufacturing, services, and international operations (Telecom Seychelles, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Bharti Global, runs the telephone service in Seychelles). A multi-layered structure allows a company to raise funds through the private placement of equity, without loss of control. This is exactly what Mittal has achieved. Bottomline? Underneath all that aggression is a thinking-CEO.

The CEO as a manager
Speed, systems, and strategy form the basis of Mittal's approach. An impatient man, he prefers to focus on the group's growth plans, leaving the rest to his executives. In one interview shortly after the three-way-deal between AT&T, the Aditya Birla Group, and the Tata Group, he expressed relief that it was the industry bigwigs who were coming together, and not some upstart whose speed of response, and hence, ability to pose a threat to his group, was far higher. Says Anil Nayar, 49, CEO, Bharti Cellular: ''Sunil is very result-oriented. He wants results and quick.'' Mittal himself seems to have realised that as his group gets larger, it will have to move to a different plane of management. He explains: ''When you are a small organisation, the pressures are different and you can manage on a day-to-day basis. Once you become larger, you have to refine your (business) processes, strive for dominance, and build a brand.'' That explains Mittal's emphasis on filling the group's ranks with professionals. All the 12 of the companies that constitute the Bharti group are headed by professionals. And Mittal's brothers Rakesh Mittal, 44, and Rajan Mittal, 40, focus on strategic issues like technology and market expansion. Says Akhil Gupta, 44, Director (Finance & Corporate Affairs), Bharti Enterprises: ''If there is one thing that stands out in this deal, it is the speed of decision-making.''

The CEO as an individual
Mittal's aggression doesn't extend into his personal life. He listens to jazz, drives a Mercedes S320 or a Lancer , and prefers a quiet evening at home to a happening party. And he speaks of life beyond business in terms of doing something for the country. Details Mittal: ''I think business has given me the right starting point, in terms of money, resources, acceptability, and credibility to do something big 10 years from now. I'd like to be remembered as someone who has contributed to the society.'' Mittal lists Dhirubhai Ambani, Keki Dadiseth, and Yogi Deveshwar among the people he admires.

For the moment, Mittal is focusing his efforts on raising money to close some of the acquisitions he's made, and, possibly, fund a few more, by taking one of his group companies public. The choice is likely to be Bharti Televentures, the holding company for the group's telecom businesses. When that happens, it should ease some of the group's financial pangs. Avers Mittal: ''The day we list, raising money will be all the more easier.''

Prime-mover or master-arbitrageur? Will the real Sunil Mittal please stand up? Some people, like T.V. Ramachandran, the 55-years-old Director of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), who was once CEO of Sterling Cellular, believe that Mittal is obsessed. ''His focus is purely on telecom: telecom and nothing else.'' Mittal, who sees his group's revenues touching $1 billion in the next three years, doesn't think so: ''If the price is right, I wouldn't mind selling part of my business. Or the whole.'' That quote, like many other things that characterise this savvy aggressor, is part of a puzzle called Sunil Mittal.

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