Construction magnate on the board walk

BACKSTAGE

had to work in a library to pay his way through university. Now he's determined to pay his way through the stockmarkets to acquire a berth on the board of Videocon Appliances.

"I want to be associated with Videocon Appliances in such a way that I can offer my business acumen collected over the years for its betterment," he says.

The acumen to which Parmar refers primarily comes from a 21-year-old Pune-based construction business "" Parmar Builders "" plus several small entrepreneurial ventures before that.

The 53-year-old Parmar is only just beginning to get used to the assiduous media attention his latest acquisition had generated. His mobile phone scarcely stopped ringing ever since he emerged from the shadows to demand a place on the Videocon Appliances board following a patient two-month acquisition of a 10 per cent stake in the company.

Yet Videocon is not his first attempt at a corporate raid, though it might be his most high-profile yet. His acquisitions in smaller companies such as Indian Hume Pipes, Sai Service and Elecon Engineering barely created a ripple.

Not that those forays were successful in terms of helping him realise his dream of acquiring a board position. He currently holds more than 9 per cent in the pipe manufacturing company but had exited Sai Service and Elecon at a handsome profit.

Those experiences proved salutary; they taught Parmar to target companies with low promoter holdings. And that's where the Aurangabad-based Videocon Appliances fitted in. The promoters, the Dhoot family, own about 34 per cent, and Parmar, who has put in over Rs 7 crore to acquire a 10 cent stake, plans to increase his holding to 15 per cent.

Why this ambition to acquire a board berth on any company? Parmar, it seems, is worried about legacy issues. His long exposure to the sometimes unsavoury nature of the construction business has convinced him that this is not the kind of inheritance he would like to pass on to his three sons.

Parmar takes a self-made man's pride in the fact that none of his children have ever needed to struggle to pursue their education. His own graduate degree in commerce from a college in Belgaum had to be self-funded because his father's small-time cloth trading business was making losses.

His pursuit of higher studies brought him to Pune. He intended to first do his chartered accountancy and then join the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants, but proved unsuccessful at both. But he joined a CA firm and worked for a while for the princely sum of Rs 150 per month in 1972.

Later, he decided to set out on his own, selling his wife's jewellery to set up a small shop that sold cutlery and assorted household items. In 1983, he ventured into the construction business in a small way with the savings from his shop and has never looked back.

Though he is evasive about disclosing the size of his business, Parmar says he has built his reputation by word of mouth, which is why he has never had to advertise. His corporate raids, too, are accompanied by a code of ethics, he insists. A strict Jain, he says that he will never touch stocks associated with liquor, tobacco or leather.

The tenacity that helped him build a profitable business is clearly not going to deter him in his quest to acquire a board berth in India Inc. Though he's not managed yet, he says, quite simply, "I will keep trying till I succeed."