The Nationalist: How A.M. Naik Overcame Great Odds to Transform Larsen &Toubro into a Global Powerhouse by Minhaz Merchant

Author:Minhaz Merchant
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2017-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

JUST WHEN it seemed the worst was over, another financial crisis rocked the world. The global economy suffered a new bout of recession in 2011-12 following the sovereign debt meltdown in Europe centred on the euro and debt-ridden Greece. Domestic factors, meanwhile, stymied the country’s progress. Measures taken by the UPA government to inject a fiscal stimulus to the economy during the 2008 global financial crisis had caused macro-economic imbalances. Investments fell in several sectors. Inflation surged. All these developments coalesced to plunge the economy into a downturn. Growth decelerated to 6.2 per cent in 2012-13. It would fall even further in 2013-14 before stabilizing under a new government.

While the country grappled to reverse the slowdown in 2012, L&T engaged in a slew of measures to increase efficiency, cut costs and rebalance its portfolio of assets. Investor sentiment had been dampened by high bank interest rates. Key projects were being postponed. The government had pledged additional spending on infrastructure, but those investments dipped because of rising inflation and multiple interest rate hikes that ballooned costs. Banks with stressed assets reported alarmingly high non-performing assets (NPAs) and reduced corporate lending.

L&T cut its order growth guidance. While its order book had increased significantly between 2004 and 2011, the company’s global presence was largely restricted to the Middle East. Now it aggressively began to court orders in the Far East, Africa and South America. Offices were opened in these regions. L&T also started to analyse opportunities in member-nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and established an office in Istanbul, Turkey, which straddled the Eurasian geography. Revenues and profits gradually improved as Naik’s third term as chairman unfolded between 2012 and 2017.

New challenges lay ahead. Shipbuilding beckoned.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.