iGate’s sell off to Capgemini: Art of letting go

Indian-American businessmen Sunil Wadhwani and Ashok Trivedi have sold off Nasdaq-listed iGate, the company they established in 1988, to French IT major Capgemini for $4 billion, becoming the latest in a line of entrepreneurs to cash in big on the companies they either built or inherited. Here is a list of ten of them:

1. Ajay Piramal, chairman of the Piramal Group, sold off Piramal Healthcare’s domestic formulations business to Abbott Laboratories of the US for $3.7 billion in 2010. He did this as he thought only an MNC of Abbott’s size and scope could take the pharma company into a global level that would be appropriate to stave off competition. He later picked up 20 per cent stake in Chennai-based Shriram Captial for Rs 2,000 crore to boost his financial services foray.

2. Rajesh Hukku, who founded iFlex Solutions, sold the company off to Oracle in 2005 for $909 million. Hukku, along with Deepak Ghaisas and Ravisankar, were part of the core team that built the company. The fortune helped the entrepreneurs invest in start-ups. 

3. Brothers Narendra Patni, Gajendra Patni and Ashok Patni, sold off their IT company Patni Computer to iGate Corporation in 2011 for $1.22 billion. Private equity firm General Atlantic also held 17.4 per cent in Patni, which too was sold off as part of the deal. 

4. Brothers Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh sold off Ranbaxy Laboratories to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo for $2.8 billion in 2008. Daiichi Sankyo later sold off Ranbaxy to Mumbai-based Sun Pharma for $4 billion in 2014. The brothers have, since then, turned their focus to hospitals and financial services.

5. Ronnie Screwvala sold his stake in UTV Software Communications, the company he founded, to The Walt Disney Company for Rs 2,000 crore in 2012. In 2006, he had sold off Hungama TV to Walt Disney for $30.5 million after incubating it for 22 months. Screwvala is now mentoring start-ups. 

6. Hemendra Kothari, one of India’s top investment bankers, sold off his financial services firm DSP to Merill Lynch in 2005 for $500 million. He fully exited the company by selling his remaining ten per cent in 2009, and at present focuses on mutual funds business through DSP BlackRock, and philanthropy.

7. Jaithirth (Jerry) Rao sold off Mphasis to EDS in 2006 for $380 million in what was then the second largest deal in the IT space after the iFlex-Oracle deal. Rao later launched Value and Budget Housing Corporation, an affordable housing venture. 

8. Raghavendra Rao of Orchid Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals sold off the company’s generic injectibles business to Hospira for $218 million in 2012 to pare part of his company’s debt. 

9. Future Group Chairman Kishore Biyani sold Pantaloon Retail to the Aditya Birla Group in 2012, and the latter, in turn, announced an investment of Rs 1,800 crore in Pantaloon Retail. Biyani went on to acquire supermarket chain Nilgiris in 2014.

10. Habil Khorakiwala sold ten out of 17 Wockhardt Hospitals to Fortis Hospitals in 2009 for Rs 909 crore. His daughter Zahabiya Khorakiwala leads the hospitals business that remains with the group, while Habil Khorakiwala and son Murtaza Khorakiwala are in charge of the pharmaceutical company, Wockhardt.