The Hindu Business Line : Establishing a vital link

“India and the UAE enjoy a very special relationship based on historical links and shared traditions and values,” says Syed M. Salahuddin, Managing Director of the Dubai-based ETA Ascon Star Group.

For Salahuddin, who is perhaps one of the most credible voices in Indo-UAE business partnerships in modern times, it is not just the success of the bilateral relations in the economic and commercial spheres that matters. The people-to-people contact that has been nurtured between the two countries over the years is also very significant, he says.

The phenomenal success of the ETA Ascon Star Group bears ample testimony to this. A $5.69 billion business conglomerate, the group began its eventful journey in the early ’70s when a clutch of enterprising entrepreneurs from Kilakarai of Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu who were successful businessmen in Hong Kong joined hands with the Al Ghurairs of Dubai. Today, the Indo-Arab partnership has powered the group into becoming one of the most pre-eminent corporate entities with the ETA family comprising more than 73,000 members. A highly diversified group with a presence in 16 broad industry segments, the ETA Ascon Star Group’s operations cover 22 countries, including India, where it is expanding in a big way.

Dwelling on the success of Indo-UAE relations, Salahuddin talks of how the Indians and Arabs have historic relations spanning thousands of years. “We have long been trade partners, with Arabian horses being traditionally sold in India and Indian spices making their way to the Middle East, and we even call the sea between us the Arabian Sea.”

“We have a lot in common culturally too, whether it is in the food we relish, the family values we cherish or the hospitality we accord to our guests. We share a unique humility in our approach to life and are highly appreciative of one another,” he elaborates.

The Great India Challenge

Two companies, ETA Engineering and ETA General, spearheaded the move into India covering a wide range of projects and marketplaces in the early 1990s. A host of other divisions have since set up their operations and are aggressively expanding. Among them are ETA Star Properties, ETA Melco, ETA Construction, Giordano, Cars India, ETA Ascon Travels, ETA Star Power Generation and West Asia Import and Export. In fact, a full-fledged centralised structure is being put in place to look into issues like banking, funding, recruitment and legal matters for the group’s expanding operations within India.

The group has put in Rs. 1,000 crore for the establishment of a three million square feet IT park called ETA Techno Park in the IT corridor on Old Mahabalipuram Road in Chennai. It is developing an integrated satellite township on the outskirts of Chennai, the first phase of which will yield a built-up area of 18 million square feet. Work on this phase has begun and the project is scheduled to be completed in 2011.

Clearly, it is this strategy of continuing expansion and diversification that places the ETA Ascon Star Group in such a commanding position today.

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