Action From The Hot Seat

Shiv Nadar was a 30-year-old engineer from Tamil Nadu when he started writing the story of Hindustan Computers, popularly known as HCL.

Nadar and his five colleagues quit Delhi Cloth Mills in 1976. The group decided to set up a company to make personal computers.

The seed of HCL was sown with the investment of just Rs 20 lakh. But as someone has rightly said, when something is destined, the universe conspires to make it happen. The year after HCL was floated, the Indian government reigned in the ambitions of foreign companies in India. Companies such as IBM and Coca-Cola started facing hardship, while domestic companies such as HCL were promoted. Today, Nadar’s net worth is Rs 76,230 crore, compared to Rs 71,200 crore last year, up by 7 per cent.

Recently, Noida-based HCL Technologies reported Rs 2,194 crore of consolidated net profit for the third quarter (Q3) of fiscal 2017-18, posting 6 per cent annual growth from Rs 2,070 crore net profit in the same period a year ago, and flat (0.3 per cent) sequential from Rs 2,188 crore in the quarter before.

In a regulatory filing on the BSE, the company said consolidated revenues for the quarter under review (Q3) grew 8.4 per cent annually to Rs 12,808 crore from Rs 11,814 crore in the same period during the previous year, and 3 per cent sequentially from Rs 12,434 crore a quarter ago.

Commenting on the results, Nadar said that along with business, his company has continued to deliver socio-economic value for its diverse shareholders. “We remain focused on promoting diversity, localising footprints and developing sustainable business models,” he said.

According to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Nadar’s net worth last year stood at $12.3 billion against the current net worth of $14.8 billion.

Shareholders of HCL Technologies recently approved the re-appointment of Shiv Nadar as the managing director of the company for the next five years, up to January 2022. He will be eligible for salary, perquisites and allowances of Rs 5 crore per annum along with other benefits, the company said in a BSE filing on the outcome of the company’s annual general meeting held on 21 September 2017.