How Rituraj Sinha is changing the Security Company his father founded

At one stroke Rituraj Sinha was putting at stake a business his father had built over 30 years. RK Sinha had founded security service provider SIS (India) in 1974 in Bihar. Now in 2008, his son wanted the Rs 150-crore company to buy an Australian security firm Chubb that was over seven times bigger in revenues. Not surprisingly, none of the senior officials at SIS were enthusiastic. Rituraj was beset with questions: “Who would give us money to make the acquisition? Do we have the management bandwidth to handle such a huge company?” Rituraj admits, “I knew it was a risk that could bring the company to its knees.”

But those were the heady days after Tata Steel had acquired its eight-time bigger peer Corus in 2007. Rituraj, who had joined the family business in 2002, was looking for a global footprint. “I wanted presence in a mature market to balance our portfolio. The high growing and dynamic Indian security market would complement a stable and predictable business in Australia,” he says.

The then 27-year-old though had another rude awakening, as not many were willing to take the youngster seriously. Citigroup, which was managing the sale of Chubb on behalf of the latter’s parent, US giant UTC, refused to give Rituraj access to company information for due diligence. “First show that you have money to buy,” he was told.

Read Full Article on: Forbes India