Ma Foi founder Pandia Rajan re-enters HR business

Noted industrialist and a sitting MLA in the Tamil Nadu Assembly K Pandia Rajan, who forayed into the HR services under the Ma Foi Management Consultants in 1992, today re-entered the business with the launch of CIEL HR Services Ltd.
Popularly known as "Ma Foi" Pandia Rajan or KPR among the business circles, Rajan had founded Ma Foi Management Consultants in August 1992 with an investment of about Rs 60,000. In a span of 18 years, the company crossed Rs 1,000 crore turnover.
"It is an important day for us. We are restarting the journey in HR services. We had made Rs 60,000 as equity when we started Ma Foi Management Consultants. In a journey of around 18 years, it crossed a revenue of Rs 1,000 crore," he told reporters here.

Though Ma Foi Management Consultants had formed joint ventures with several companies in 18 years, Netherlands-based HR firm Randstad announced acquisition of Vedior which had formed a joint venture Ma Foi Management Services.
As Randstad acquired Vedior, Ma Foi Management Consultants automatically merged with Randstad which was renamed as "Ma Foi-Randstad". Later, Pandia Rajan sold Ma Foi brand to Randstad exiting the HR business.
Talking about his return to the HR services, Rajan said CIEL HR Services will be headquartered in Bengaluru and will have four promoters with majority stake with himself and wife Latha Rajan also Director and Co-Founder of CIEL HR Services.

"CIEL is a French word meaning Sky. My wife and myself will be key promoters in CIEL. Our equity in this company is Rs 3 crore. There has been exponential growth in HR services industry and we believe we will also have similar growth," he said.

Currently, CIEL HR Services has presence in Bengaluru, Baroda and Mumbai and be expanded to New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune, he said. "We expect first year revenue to be Rs 10 crore".
According to him, under the Ma Foi Group, CIEL HR Services would be another division. Ma Foi Group manages -- Ma Foi Strategy Consultants, Ma Foi Education, Ma Foi Connecting Dots, micro-finance institution Varam Capital.

"Last year group's total revenue was about Rs 19 crore. We expect this year it would reach Rs 60 crore revenues. Varam Capital has been registering over 400 per cent growth year-on-year...," he said.