Boby Kurian

Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Bangalore , June 13

MR Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Chairman and CEO of BPL Communications Ltd, which manages cellular operations across four circles in the country, is likely to pull himself back from the daily operational management of the mobile telephone business once it inducts a foreign partner during the current financial year.

"At least three foreign players with whom we are in talks have made it a condition that I stay back for them to invest in a joint venture. But I plan to step back a bit and let the operations be managed by a professional team," Mr Chandrasekhar told Business Line.

"Management is not a big issue here (in the wake of stake sale to a partner). I have demonstrated it twice before in my career in telecom. In 1999-2000, I did step aside after assuming the role of Chairman, and later when BPL Mobile negotiated the failed merger with Batata (Birla-Tata-AT&T combine), I did not harp on a management role," he said.

The 41-year-old Mr Chandrasekhar returned to head the operational management as CEO after a small hiatus in 2002 when his cellular business was bogged down by a host of problems, including a failed merger plan, a WLL imbroglio, a ruckus with the financial partners and the sullying of the BPL brand name as other family concerns started faltering.

"People said Rajeev will die, Rajeev is dying, and Rajeev is dead. We added over a million subscribers last year, and plan to add 1.5 million subscribers in the current year.

"The year 2004-05 was the best in our decade-long existence. Revenues grew by 40 per cent and EBITDA jumped 35 per cent," he added.

Mr Chandrasekhar's Rs 1,012-crore telecom business functions through two operational companies — BPL Mobile Communications Ltd in Mumbai and BPL Mobile Cellular Ltd in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

He is in talks with a host of prospective partners, mostly foreign and a few Indian, for equity dilution to spur the future expansion of the cellular operations.

"We need to tie up with a partner in time for the next financial year when we have expansion plans either in the form of adding new businesses such as Wi-Fi or entering new geographies like Gujarat and Karnataka," he added.

It is learnt that Mr Chandrasekhar, with a substantial stake holding in the flagship and the two operational companies, would prefer the potential partner to initially pick up 49 per cent equity, and going up to 74 per cent subsequently.

"Frankly, we have not yet really decided on the structuring of the deal," he said.

The interested foreign partners include Vodafone, DoCoMo and STT, while Essar Holdings is the domestic interest in the fray, even as AirTel and Hutchison had looked at the possibility of a 100 per cent buyout earlier, informed sources said.

However, Mr Chandrasekhar needs to patch up a dispute with his father-in-law, Mr T.P.G. Nambiar, the patriarch of BPL group, over equity holding before he firms up with the partner, though it may not come in the way of a deal straightaway.

"I will not make statements on the family dispute, as there are other people involved in it," he said.

The sources said the telecom business would jettison the BPL brand once it brings in a foreign partner, as it would like to free itself from certain constraints and help its future expansion.

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