Debu Bhattacharya hangs up his boots after transforming Hindalco

With a career that saw the company's sales grow multifold, and helped acquire Novelis, Bhattacharya is set to hand over the baton to Satish Pai

In 1999, when a young Kumar Mangalam Birla was looking for a chief executive officer to head the Aditya Birla group’s metal company Hindalco he zeroed in on Debnarayan Bhattacharya -  Debu to his friends — a rising star at  Hindustan Lever. As Bhattacharya hangs up his boots this weekend, Birla must be satisfied with his choice.

From a single-location company with sales of Rs  1,759 crore and market value of Rs 3,470 crore in 1999, Hindalco is today a multinational with Rs 100,000 crore of sales and a market value of Rs 27,600 crore.

Bhattacharya, an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur and Presidency College, Kolkata, says it was not an easy decision. After the untimely demise of his father, Birla was building a team to take the group to the next level. “As it turned out, it was not a wrong decision at all (to join Birla),” Bhattacharya had said in an earlier interview.  

The biggest gamble by Bhattacharya and Birla was the acquisition of a much bigger US-based aluminum can manufacturer Novelis for $6 billion in 2007, which propelled Hindalco into the big league of metal companies in the world. After the Novelis acquisition, Bhattacharya did not take his eye of the ball. Hindalco ramped up production in India with an investment of $6 billion to meet rising demand in the continent.

Group insiders say the DNA of Hindalco changed under Bhattacharya, from a laidback company to an aggressive global player looking out for opportunities across the world.  

Bhattacharya’s 17-year stint at Hindalco was not without controversy, however. In 2013, Hindalco, Bhattacharya and Birla were accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of being illegally allotted coal mines in Odisha by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The CBI was probing coal mine allocations on an order by the Supreme Court, which cancelled all allotments made over 20 years. Soon after the news broke out, Bhattacharya told this paper Hindalco had followed all the rules and had not broken the law. The matter is pending in court.

Bhattacharya, 68, will hand over the baton to Satish Pai, who will take over as next managing director of Hindalco on Monday. Bhattacharya will be vice-chairman of Hindalco, apart from taking on an advisory role at the group level.

Consolidated Figures in Rs Crore
Year End	Networth	Total Debt	Deb Equity Ratio	Net Sales	PAT	Market Capitalisation	Year End Price (BSE)
FY99	3256	687	0.21	1759	567	3470	40
FY00	3799	575	0.15	2013	612	5474	63
FY01	4379	715	0.16	2253	678	5745	66
FY02	4609	1395	0.30	3565	749	5734	66
FY03	6144	3304	0.54	6401	666	4943	46
FY04	7001	3724	0.53	7938	993	11256	104
FY05	7616	4931	0.65	9920	1285	12002	110
FY06	9340	6279	0.67	11843	1580	21151	166
FY07	12818	8443	0.66	19096	2686	15106	118
FY08	17284	32352	1.87	59696	2193	20216	150
FY09	15759	28310	1.80	65752	484	8827	52
FY10	21545	23999	1.11	60548	3925	34774	182
FY11	29023	29437	1.01	72202	2456	39946	209
FY12	31911	41016	1.29	80821	3397	24783	129
FY13	35330	56951	1.61	80193	3027	17519	92
FY14	40605	64756	1.59	87695	2175	29255	142
FY15	38329	68468	1.79	104281	854	26669	129
FY16	38414	66945	1.74	100042	44.8	18151	87.9

Figures as on July 29; Current Mcap  = Rs 27619.39 Crore; Price = 133.75

FY16 figures as per the unaudited results

Source: Capitaline

Compiled by BS Research Bureau