‘Tata's awesome threesome
Business Standard— March 27, 2008

Kant, Gandhi and Ramakrishnan are the men who saw the deal through.

For the trio who flew down to Birmingham for the signing up of Ratan Tata’s most ambitious automobile acquisition, it’s been a tough nine months of winding negotiations.

While Ratan Tata looked into all the details, his handpicked team to make the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover possible comprised Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant, the company’s low profile CFO C Ramakrishnan (who recently replaced Praveen Kadle, now the boss of Tata Capital), and his merger and acquisition specialist Arunkumar Ramanlal Gandhi, executive director of Tata Sons and the man who also played an important role in getting the ambitious Corus deal through for Tata Steel. To support them there were Rajiv Dubey, president of passenger cars, and Kadle, who pitched in despite his transfer.

Insiders say that the trio functioned as a unit with Kant and Ramakrishnan involved in the nitty-gritty of negotiations, from the unions to the Ford management to the top brass of the two companies. Gandhi came in essentially to provide his expertise in funding the deal and for negotiations to settle pension funds of ex-employees of the two companies.

Without doubt, the most low-profile man of the three is Ramakrishnan, who joined Tata Motors in 1980. Tata Motors insiders, however, say that he has been a key member of Ratan Tata’s crack team, working with the chairman’s office for over six years, where one of his assignments was to oversee Tata Motors.

He has handled a variety of assignments for the group over the years - he looked at the corporate treasury and accounting functions with management accounting for over 15 years.

Thereafter, he held a two-year company-wide system and business process project responsibility covering R&D, manufacturing, sourcing and sales and service, giving him a close view of how automobile companies function.

On the other hand, Corus bought Arunkumar Gandhi in the limelight. As Tata Sons executive director since August 2003 and a member of the group corporate centre, Gandhi has been Tata’s key man on all merger and acquisition deals.

Those who know him say that his persistence, attention to detail and flexibility played a key role in Tata eventually grabbing Corus, their largest deal till now. Gandhi also played a big role role last year in Tata Chemicals’ acquisition of General Chemical Industrial Products in the US.

Gandhi, who was a senior partner at N M Raiji & Company before catching Tata’s eye, brought with him vast experience in the funding of mergers and acquisitions.

As a partner, Gandhi was involved in tax advisory for both national and international issues, structuring efficient investment routes, designing employee stock option plans and statutory, internal and management audits - all of which were useful for negotiations with Ford.

Ravi Kant, the third and the most important member of the trio, has been a key strategist for Tata in the automobile space. Kant, who turned fortunes of ailing scooter company LML, was one of the key men in negotiations with Korean giant Daewoo in 2004 as executive director heading Tata Motors’ commercial vehicle business.

Tatas’ snapped the deal — one of their first in the automobile space and the third overseas — picking up the entire commercial vehicle unit of the company for $102 million.

He also played a key role in integrating the company into the Tata fold, ensuring that the Daewoo brand reigned supreme, the old management continued to run the show and that the group could leverage the technology for trucks in India.

Kant made his second deal in 2005 by helping pick up 21 per cent stake in Hispano Carrocera, a Spainish bus making company.

The man, behind the launch of Titan Watches, also had a brief stint with consumer electronics company Philips India. For Kant, the Jaguar-Rover deal is the third feather in his cap, giving shape to Tata’s global automobile ambitions.