Mumbai: Sachin Bajla loves luxury cars. He uses a Bentley on the weekends and a brand new Audi 6 to shuttle between his home and office in suburban Mumbai. But for his business trips to war-torn Africa, his options are limited.
Positive outlook: Dharni Sampada’s Sachin Bajla expects the company’s net profit to rise to Rs100 crore in the current year and to Rs500 crore by March 2012, riding on exports of tantalite and uranium. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint
That’s why he’s ordered two planes—a $12-15 million (Rs56-70 crore) Learjet to halve the flying time between Mumbai and Ivory Coast and a $2.9 million eight-seater Cessna Caravan to hop among his various mines in Africa. The conflict-ridden Ivory Coast, officially known as Côte d’Ivoire, may not be the world’s most popular business destination but for those who don’t mind dodging bullets, there are rich pickings to be made.
“I love to tread where others fear,” says Bajla, 38, who dropped out from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management in Mumbai. “This is a lethal business and a bullet can hit you at any time,” he says; his cousin took one in rebel firing in Ivory Coast. “I don’t take chances,” says Bajla, who charters planes to reach his mines and hires security guards from government military forces.
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Bajla’s Dharni Sampada Ltd owns four manganese mines in Ivory Coast, six blocks of uranium mines across 3,000 sq. km in Niger and two tantalite mines in Sierra Leone, another conflict-ridden country.
Twelve years ago, Bajla was making belt buckles in a shanty in Dharavi, one of Asia’s largest slums. Today, he’s setting up a 25,000 sq. ft office that he purchased last year for Rs45 crore to seat 900 of his 1,300 employees in India.
The minerals he produces are in demand. Manganese purifies iron ore in blast furnaces, uranium powers nuclear plants and tantalite is used to make capacitors in mobile phones.
Bajla, whose idols are Reliance Industries Ltd founder Dhirubhai Ambani and Anil Agarwal of Vedanta Resources Plc, gambled by betting on Africa.
“The risks we took in hostile countries are slowly paying off,” said Bajla, who runs an average of 9-10km a day and plays squash for an hour when he is in Mumbai. His working methods are similarly intense.
The Niger government awarded him six blocks in 2006 although he had submitted his bid after the deadline expired. Rivals Rio Tinto and Areva had to be content with two blocks.
“It was our sheer perseverance and social commitment” that swung the deal, says Bajla. He offered the Niger government 30% of the profit, jobs for locals and committed to green part of the desert.
The Niger survey has found uranium in 40 sq. km after exploring a 1,000 sq. km area. He still has another 2,000 sq. km to cover. Bajla wants to start producing the yellow cake by January 2011 for international markets as countries shift to nuclear power from coal-based power plants.