In a riveting session, Piramal Group Chairman Ajay Piramal and Business Today Editor Sourav Majumdar shared insightful perspectives on the challenges and opportunities in India's business landscape. Their discussion covered topics ranging from India's growth prospects, compliance challenges of businesses, acquisition & investment strategy, and more
When asked about India's growth prospects amid global headwinds like the Russia-Ukraine war, supply chain issues, inflation, and rising interest rates, Ajay Piramal said that these headwinds are tailwinds for India. India is in a favourable position, as per the billionaire
Ajay Piramal stated that India handled the Covid-19 situation better than expected. By providing targeted loans to support small and big businesses, and looking after the economically weaker section of society, the government ensured that the economy did well
Ajay Piramal shared that when talking to large foreign investors, he has observed that there is an enormous interest in India now. "They want to invest, but obviously many things have yet to happen. But it is a good time," said Piramal
Talking about his stellar investment decisions over the years, Ajay Piramal said that there is no secret sauce. One has to understand the environment, and the future while making any investment, the tycoon said
Ajay Piramal recalled how when they entered the pharma industry, the valuation was low as India was not considered a good place for pharma. However, they felt that the future of pharma in India was good, and later exited when they felt it was necessary. "When we entered pharma, we paid at a multiple of 0.3x of sales and when we sold it, it was 9x of sales,” said Piramal
Talking about his investment and exit from Vodafone, Ajay Piramal shared that they knew from the beginning that the investment in the telecom major was never going to be a long-term investment for them because it required too much capital. So they sold it at the 'right time'
When asked about the burden of compliances, Ajay Piramal stated that some of the regulations and compliances need to come down for entrepreneurs' animal spirits to soar. He stated that different regulators need to come together and discuss, so regulations can come down
According to Ajay Piramal, instead of pre-approvals for everything, there is a need for the system to set boundaries and allow people to do things, and take necessary action if there is an issue. Piramal added that the government is now open to suggestions, and there are opportunities for people to give suggestions, which are taken on board sometimes
Talking about his acquisition strategy, Ajay Piramal explained that during an acquisition, when you dig deep to assess the value of an asset and it turns out to be a perfect asset, a lot of people will be bidding for it, and you are always high. This is not the case for an imperfect asset
Taking the example of DHFL acquisition, Ajay Piramal explained that DHFL was an imperfect asset with fraud in the wholesale book. However, the retail book had good value. So entrepreneurs need to assess the risk and invest. Since many are hesitant to bid for imperfect assets, you can score if you see the value