Search the Internet           Tips

Arun Bajoria: The mysterious jute baron with uncanny business acumen

Rifat Jawaid in Calcutta

Some call him Ambanis' prodigy, while others view him as a potential threat to Bombay Dyeing's Nusli Wadia. Arun Bajoria, however, remains a mystery businessman today. The jute baron has hit media headlines after his controversial purchase of Bombay Dyeing shares came under sharp scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

None, except a few of his close friends and business associates, took him seriously earlier.

Ask those who dealt with him in the past, they all praise him in unison for his business skills. According to them, his sharp buying skills and daring approach in purchasing things at considerably lower rates that have seen his career graph rise steeply.

Take Ballarpur Industries, for instance. Bajoria volunteered to buy 6 per cent stake in Ballarpur Industries when it was undergoing massive losses. Again, the deal was through without any brouhaha and nobody ever came to know about it until the man himself revealed the truth.

Says Siddhartha Chatterjee of Thomas Investment, "I have had the opportunity to work with him (Bajoria) on many an occasion and I am convinced about his talent. He is a very intelligent businessman. What impresses me most about him is his daring approach and style of operation. Be it the real estate or any other business, he does not hesitate to buy them at low prices. For example, if TISCO is selling at Rs 60, he would probably be the only guy making efforts to buy the steel giant's shares, for he knows that the company's reputed brand will help him reap the profits over a period of time. Bajoria is not interested in running a company. He is extremely good at purchasing things at low rates. And he succeeds because he has a cash mountain with him."

Siddhartha's statements are confirmed if one looks at Bajoria's long-standing stint with the jute industries. He single-handedly took his Hooghly Jute Mills to soaring heights even when the industry, in general, was experiencing the worst-ever recession. "It speaks volume of his judgement that his Garden Reach Jute Mill had an annual turnover in excess of Rs 5 billion in late eighties and today he has full control over 15 per cent of the private sector jute industry in Bengal. He has extended his clout even to the south. Unbelievable, it may appear, especially when one considers the dying nature of jute industry in Bengal," says another observer.

Bajoria, say his businessmen friends, owes his unprecedented success in the jute sector to his hard decisions and never-say-die attitude. Bajoria reportedly purchased jute at throwaway prices since money was always available in abundance with him.

Son of well-known businessman Radheshsyam Bajoria, he has always been a firm votary of the fact that jute as an industry had bright prospects in India.

However, Bajoria has always found himself in the center of many a controversy for a variety of reasons. In the eighties, his plans to develop the garden locality of Rowdan Square in south Calcutta stirred up a hornets' nest. Although the deal never materialised, he managed to make a considerable amount of money.

He avoided the Enforcement Directorate's attempts to book him in 1997 and 1998 on the charges of defaulting provident fund and hawala (money laundering) allegations made against him. On both these occasions, he got himself admitted in hospital, but failed to escape the judicial custody.

Bajoria's other associates appreciate his humane nature. Says one of his old friends, "Even though I was his competitor in the jute industry, he never tried to suppress us. In fact, such was his gesture that every time I went to him for a business discussion, he was more than willing to help in terms of advice or suggestion."

Numerous efforts to contact the mystery man himself at his Garden Reach residence were, however, futile.

Money

Business News

Tell us what you think of this profile