NRI entrepreneur C Sivasankaran is on the prowl again. After selling his GSM business to Malaysian telecom major Maxis Communications Berhad for $800 million (around Rs 3,600 crore), Sivasankaran will invest in infotech and biotechnology, according to sources.
"Siva is not a man who will sit idle. Being an entrepreneur to the core, he will reinvest the money. However, sectors for fresh investment are yet to be finalised and will not rush into it," a source close to the development said.
Sivasankaran, the big newsmaker
He will initiate talks with advisors and zero in on a particular sector. Sivasankaran is believed to be keeping his options close to his heart and "has only revealed that he would like to reinvest the money in profitable ventures".
History suggests this could be true as he once sold Sterling Computers, a firm he had started in 1983.
The company used to make a range of PCs and had gone public in 1989. It was rated as India's fourth largest PC producer. He later sold Internet arm of Dishnet DSL to VSNL for Rs 270 crore (Rs 2.7 billion).
Last year, Sivasankaran took over Barista Coffee from its founders Amit Judge and Tata Coffee.
On Friday, Maxis and the Reddy family, owners of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, acquired Aircel for $1.08 billion. Maxis would control 74 per cent of Aircel, the maximum overseas investment India allows in telephone companies, while the Reddy family will have the remaining shareholding. The transaction would be executed in two stages.
The first stage will see a subscription for new equity shares, representing 26 per cent of the expanded capital of Aircel. The second stage will see the purchase of all existing equity shares held by promoter C Sivasankaran.
