RPG Group in for a do-over as a scion takes charge
MUMBAI : Anant Goenka, heir to the $4.4 billion RPG Group, has a distinct personality from his father, Harsh Goenka, and grandfather, the late Rama Prasad Goenka. He has built himself a reputation as more of a consolidator for the RPG Group, a conglomerate that had grown through aggressive acquisitions. But the third-generation scion, after about a decade-and-half at the group, may finally be ready to change stripes.
The RPG Group—which Rama Prasad Goenka founded in 1979—was often critiqued in the eighties and nineties for its highly diversified businesses that it had accumulated through aggressive acquisitions and debt. His grandson Anant Goenka, 40 years old, was elevated in October as vice-chairman of the conglomerate spanning tyres, chemicals and software, and engineering, procurement and construction businesses. Anant Goenka likes to keep a low profile, reflective of his conservative approach to business.
He has been focused on improving the group's financials even as he steadily expanded its businesses into adjacencies. But his strategy of taking fewer risks appears to be changing. “Certainly, going forward, we hope to be a little bit more acquisitive than we have in the past," Anant Goenka said in an interview with the Mint.
“I think of capital allocation as 70-20-10, where 70% of the capital is used to grow your core businesses, 20% into adjacent businesses, and 10% of capital into high-risk, high-return segments," said Goenka. Over the last 6-8 months the group has made a few nimble moves, seeding two ventures in the e-commerce (Tyres and More) and telematics spaces (Taabi). The conglomerate has also made fresh inroads in the climate sector.
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