Win-win in his sails

Had not fate and ambition willed otherwise, Ravi Mehrotra would have been another executive in a shipping company. But the Chairman of the UK-based Foresight group, a conglomerate with interests in shipping, oil drilling and exploration, hospitality and now branded retail and footwear manufacture, says the burning desire to be a ship owner when he was in his early 40s, made him resign a lucrative job in Iran and sail off to London to test the waters.

Now 72, a spry Mehrotra is waiting in the lobby of the Oberoi in Delhi at the appointed time. The next day is a big one for him as Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit is to release his book followed by a reading by journalist-writer Mark Tully. While the book catalogues Mehrotra’s voyage, from a middle-class family in small-town Kanpur to the top rung of the shipping world in London, it is also sprinkled with takeaways for would-be entrepreneurs, including a ten-step guide which he calls Ravi’s Formula.

As Tully writes in the foreword to the book, “He started as a naughty marine engineering cadet, was rusticated for ragging, went to sea and came ashore at a comparatively young age to have an adventurous corporate career in shipping. That included hazardous years in Iran before and after the Revolution.”

Buying tea for Iran

Over dinner, where Mehrotra orders for us some minestrone soup and a bottle of Grover red wine, with grilled red snappers to follow, I ask about his tumultuous years in Iran. There’s a twinkle in his eyes as he recalls his posting with the Shipping Corporation of India to work in Irano Hind Shipping Co, a joint venture set up to export iron ore from Kudremukh to Iran. The project, he says, was delayed by two years and Irano Hind had to find things to do to stay afloat. On his initiative, the shipping company became a trader, importing tons of Darjeeling tea from India.

While Mehrotra climbed the ranks of the company, the Iranian revolution resulted in a regime change with the Shah deposed. He chose to stay on though times were tense and risky, he recalls. “I sent my children off to India to continue their education.” But, as happenstance would have it, the Iranian government wanted an advisor on shipping. With permission from New Delhi, Mehrotra, then in his late 30s, was appointed principal advisor on shipping to the Islamic Republic of Iran. “I also found from my few meetings with Ayatollah Khomeini that he recognised the importance of shipping to ensure the continuous inflow of petro dollars,” he says.

For the love of a ship…

But he was restless; “I didn’t see light at the end of the tunnel. If the job of Advisor had come to me when I was 50-plus, I would have been happy, but I was 42. I could not see myself in the same job for the next 20 years. I had achieved everything that the profession could offer. But I had not become a ship owner, which I wanted to before I retired. My wife said I was mad. But I told her to give me two years to try and, if I failed, I could get a job. At least I would have no regrets.”

So, in 1984, he quit SCI and moved to London. Why the UK, I ask, and not back home? “Well,” he says candidly, “In India I would have been a failure. I had risen quite well and was earning well. But that didn’t mean I could start a shipping company when a ship cost $10 million.” So, London it was, where finance was more readily available.

Involved in ship broking, the initial years for the Foresight Group were tough. But his connections with Iran provided the turning point. A risky assignment, he recalls, to evacuate oil from Iran during the war years with Iraq helped the company earn its spurs as an oil transporter and exporter. This was also the time, in the mid-1980s, that Foresight bought its first VLCC (very large crude carrier).

But buying his first ship wasn’t easy. “I bought the ship in 1985 for $2 million in an auction from the Spanish Government, which was selling it due to a recession. Then we invested another $2.5 million to refurbish it. This was funded by a German bank, which gave us 75 per cent of the money, and the rest was financed from our own earnings. We sold that ship for $5 million within six years. That is how the group built its equity,” he explains.

Drilling for oil

His exposure to oil trading during the Iran-Iraq war got him to diversify into drilling. Refrigerated ships followed. At the peak, Foresight owned 25 rigs and ships. Today, the group is more into oil drilling, deploying rigs in the Arabian Gulf and Iran. Three more rigs, being built in China, are on way. Along with his hospitality arm, the group’s valuation is at least $1 billion, he says.

His entry into hospitality was also happenstance, he recalls. At a shipping conference in Shanghai, a chance encounter with the Mayor turned up an invitation to start an Indian restaurant. He did, following up with five more across China, all called The Tandoor. He also owns a Chinese restaurant in Delhi.

Sailing in rough seas

But it hasn’t been roses all the way. The late 1990s turned quite tough for him. Heavily invested in the reefer (refrigerated ships) business, Foresight had raised a huge sum in the American bond market. With the shipping industry going through its cyclical downturn, the group was hard put to pay interest on the bonds. Amer Reefer, a group company, went through protracted turmoil for a few years till 2002, when it emerged from US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after it completed restructuring its bond issue.

“In hindsight, this was a miscalculation on my part, for in my eagerness to regain my worldwide standing in reefer shipping, I lost out on the more lucrative bulk carrier business, which boomed shortly after we had invested in reefers,” he explains.

India connect

A group company, Hallworthy Shipping, is part of a consortium led by GAIL prospecting for oil in Rajasthan. Foresight has invested about $10 million. But hitting the headlines is the Pavers Foresight Venture’s application for a $20-million investment as 100 per cent FDI in single brand retail.

Mehrotra is emphatic that the 30 per cent local sourcing clause is important for India. “How will jobs be created in India if they don’t insist on that?” he asks. The Pavers England brand, which retails footwear in India, already sources 40 per cent of its requirement from India, so that’s not a worry for the group.

He says that despite all his years abroad, he has kept India ties strong. He’s been awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen for his services to shipping. What empire, you wonder? But, then, he’s been master of the seas through which Britain created its empire.

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