Deal Meister

He’s a clever entrepreneur who spots opportunities to take over, turn around and then sell businesses. Some label him a “maverick businessman” whose moves are as unpredictable as they are unconventional. Yet, Chinnakannan Sivasankaran (or ‘Siva’ as he is better known) has one consistent thing going for him: he almost unfailingly makes a substantial killing when he exits the businesses that he acquires.

Name: C. Sivasankaran Age: 52 Designation: Chairman Company: Sterling Group

Beginning as a fabrication contractor for Chennai Petroleum Corporation (CPCL) some three decades ago, Siva, 52, has come a long way ever since he pioneered the concept of low-cost computers back in the 1980s. His company, Sterling Computers, sold PCs at Rs 33,000 in an era when computers were still a luxury.

Then, with the sector opening up in the early 1990s, he hopped onto the telecoms bandwagon, building Aircel Cellular into a major player in the Tamil Nadu circle, buying, along the way, the RPG Group’s Chennai licence for about Rs 250 crore.

Then, just as everyone thought he was going strong, in 2006, Siva sold Aircel to Malaysia’s Maxis Communications for a cool Rs 4,700 crore. Last week, Siva, a jet-setting NRI, protested the move by Maxis to offload a part of the Aircel stake to US telecoms giant AT&T on the grounds that he hasn’t been paid in full yet and that the sale violates his agreement with the Malaysian firm.

While that dispute is still unresolved, Siva’s strategy as a serial entrepreneur has certainly borne him fruit. In 2004, he exited Dishnet DSL, a broadband venture that he grew by selling it to VSNL for Rs 270 crore; then, in the same year, he paid Rs 65 crore for the Barista coffee shop chain from the Tatas and Turner Morrison before selling it in 2007 for around Rs 500 crore to Italy’s Lavazza. If anyone has made serial entrepreneurship a fine art form, it is Siva.

—N. Madhavan