Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:59:33
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.90 2.00%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,095.75 1.08%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,448.20 0.52%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 428.55 0.13%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 277.05 2.21%
Business News/ Mint-lounge / GV Sanjay Reddy | Taking off
BackBack

GV Sanjay Reddy | Taking off

GV Sanjay Reddy | Taking off

Sangitaa AdvaniPremium

Sangitaa Advani

For Sanjay Reddy, being airborne has been a way of life for the last couple of years. Between Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai, he clocks 275 flights a year, or one flight every working day. On the ground, he spends 18 hour-days in an office with a panoramic view of the 500 planes and 60,000 passengers that pass daily through Mumbai’s international airport.

Sangitaa Advani

And when he wants to get away from it all, Reddy goes underwater. The Maldives is a favourite destination. It all began 10 years ago on a holiday in Koh Samui, Thailand, where Reddy and wife Pinky successfully completed a diver’s course. “There’s a whole world underwater that you can’t even imagine…the vivid colours of the fish and plant life, the Zen-like silence where you hear your own heartbeat, the sense of freedom and the beauty of everything coexisting," he says.

Reddy’s father, G.V. Krishna Reddy, founder-chairman of the billion-dollar GVK group, is a sports enthusiast. Every day, before work, the sprightly 71-year-old plays a power-packed game of tennis, mentoring budding players on the court at his Hyderabad residence. One of them was the young Sania Mirza, whom GVK has sponsored since she was 11. Reddy, however, preferred badminton and swimming, later taking up golf and adventure sports.

Manni Kantipudi, president of GVK Bio, a life sciences company, and a diving enthusiast who has explored the Maldivian waters with some of the Reddy family, says: “Sanjay always wanted to do something that was 100% his own and closely monitors the bottom line. In 2001, at start-up stage, he lived in the US sharing a room to keep costs down. That’s a true entrepreneur."

Manish Kejriwal, MD, Temasek Holdings Advisors India Pvt. Ltd, whose fund has invested in GVK’s recent IPO, adds: “Sanjay is a successful serial entrepreneur because he knows how to create new entities and hand them to professional management."

The ultimate diving experience for Reddy was an underwater trip at night in the Maldives a few years ago. He reminisces: “You are in a medium that you can feel all around, but you can see only as far as the beam of your torchlight. Suddenly, it’s as if a thousand fireflies have lit up your path. These are plankton, which have absorbed your light and are reflecting it."

Homi Adajania, diving instructor, film-maker and travel writer, explains: “Night diving is an enjoyable uncertainty where you put yourself in the hands of the ocean. And you never go down alone, but with a ‘buddy’. So you rely on your partner for your life." Diving is fun, says Reddy, because Pinky is his ‘buddy’, and there’s more that the two share—they often take in an art exhibition, her love for contemporary Indian art happily coexisting with his collection of Indian bronzes in which “nothing is less than 100 years old," he says.

Sunday family lunch with his parents is always Andhra pulao, peppered with stories about diving, tennis and new project ideas.

This penchant for eclectic collaboration works wonders for the business, says Munesh Khanna, MD, Halcyon Resources Pvt. Ltd, a private equity firm. He recollects that when he was with the investment bank, Rothschild, he introduced Reddy to their South African client, ACSA: “His clarity, tenacity and straightforwardness made ACSA select GVK over others, to partner the Mumbai airport venture."

GVK has a string of strategic partners: for the Metro project, it’s YDL, Malaysia; for life sciences, it’s D.S. Brar, former chief executive officer, Ranbaxy, along with multinational Wyeth. Recently, GVK entered into a joint venture with Air Deccan, IDFC and K. Raheja Group to build airports in smaller cities.

The constraints Reddy faces in upgrading Mumbai airport to a world-class status are huge but that hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm. The Prime Minister will soon lay the foundation stone for the new integrated Mumbai airport, “which will set a global benchmark in the way it showcases the local setting." So in four years’ time, delicate Mughal jaali-work and South Indian temple-style pillars will contrast with sleek, contemporary check-in counters.

And like the bioluminescence of underwater life, the modern gateway to India will reflect the diverse strands of a rich heritage.

Name: G.V. Sanjay Reddy

Occupation: Entrepreneur

Age: 42

Title: MD, Mumbai International Airport Ltd (Mial); Vice-chairman, GVK Industries

Education:Bachelor of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, US; MBA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, US

Pursuits: Scuba diving, trekking, golf, collecting traditional Indian art

Claim to fame: Helping GVK become a leading infrastructure company by building India’s first private power plant and its first privately built expressway.

Now modernizing Mumbai airport, India’s largest, to make it world class

(Personal Space runs every alternate Friday and looks at the pursuits beyond work of some of India’s corporate leaders. Write to Sangitaa Advani at personalspace@livemint.com)

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 08 Nov 2007, 11:28 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App