Profile: Wilbur Ross

Lord of the 'empire of the damned'

American billionaire Wilbur Ross always flies commercial "" if that is any indicator of the personality of a man whose enterprise value is close to $8 billion. Surely he wants value for money.

The jury is still out on whether or not he will get that from his $80 million (Rs 345 crore) investment in Delhi-based low-cost carrier SpiceJet.

The aviation investment is an altogether new ballgame for this billionaire, especially in India and at a time when high crude prices have landed the industry in a mess. A small investment in Eastern Airline in his initial years is all the aviation exposure he can boast of.

This, to be sure, is not Ross' first investment in India, though it has received much more hype than his earlier one last year "" a straight acquisition of SK Birla's OCM Suitings for $37 million. The Indian acquisition fitted Ross' scheme of things then.

He had made good money after he created one big textile company, International Textile Group, through the acquisition of Cone Mills and Burlington Industries for $614 million, though the acquisition met with a lot of opposition from the stakeholders of Cone Mills.

Ross, who was expanding internationally in textiles and had a presence in South America, China, Vietnam and even Nicaragua, saw the OCM acquisition as further adding to the "resources and synergies of our textile sector."

If Ross wanted, he could fund any of the airlines in America - and he would have been welcome to do that with almost 900 aircraft grounded "" but Ross chose India because, emphasise his bankers, "He sees value in this airline and loves the low-cost model."

Ross has admitted that he is on the lookout for investments in sectors impacted by the rise in crude oil prices.

Ross for some reason has always made his millions when others around him are being stripped of their millions. This perhaps is the reason why his nine funds are sometimes called as 'empire of the damned.'

Ross started at the Wall Street as a young lad and, being good with numbers, worked his way up to global investment bank Rothschild in the 1970s. It was in Rothschild where he got his expertise as a bankruptcy adviser.

He spent a good time of his life there running a private equity fund for three years till in the year 2000 with some $440 million of investor money he along with four of the top managers of Rothschild opened Wilbur Ross and Co, a global private equity firm with expertise in restructuring enterprises and turning around distressed companies into profitable ventures.

It was in 2002 that his International Steel Group Inc. acquired and added Bethlehem Steel, a rusty steel junkyard then, to create his steel empire. He is yet to make an empire of his telecommunication business named 360 Networks where he has made large investments.

But Ross is not exactly an international player, though he loves to use the word international in most of his companies, at least till now. His China rhetoric is well known and Ross has made no attempts to conceal his barbs against the country when his textile business interests clashed with regulations there.

He has made some success in his investments in Japan but his attempt to buy into a part of the South Korean automobile company Hyundai did not make much headway.

In India, he says he might invest more in times to come. In boarding SpiceJet, Ross had used his old tactic to get into the company as a bondholder.

"Different markets have different connotations," says a Rothschild banker involved with the deal. "Right now, the airline might be undervalued but definitely he sees a long term value in the enterprise. And this is not a distress investment. It should be looked into as a turnaround investment," he added.

If crude oil does not play spoilsport for another few months to come, Ross might be able to achieve a quick turnaround. And definitely his insistence to "know everything that can be known about a company before the bonds hit 70 cents on the dollar" is a strategy that will stand good for him this time too.