Give it to the man!

Everyone was scratching their heads on what business Subrata Roy Sahara did? Whomever I asked told me that they were earlier in Airlines and later into finance. Apart from Sahara-One channel, since time immemorial they are sponsoring the Indian cricket team and now own the IPL team Pune Warriors India and the Pune stadium at Gahunje (30 km from Pune) is named after the Sahara India Pariwar’s honcho. From a marketing point of view, the Indian cricket team jersey is the best place to place your brand for maximum absorption, retention and recall. But when you don’t know what the product/service the brand promoted, the puzzle gets even more complex for the cricket-crazy viewers. Was it soap, a mobile phone or an energy drink or atleast a bank? No one knew. All they knew was that the jersey looks odd without Sahara printed on it. But why such a bizarre marketing campaign to promote nothing at all? All we look for is an ace up the sleeve of Mr. Sahara.

What I wanted to ask him was when he had his own media channel why didn’t he start a sports channel of his own? In February 2012, he strangled the BCCI by saying that Sahara won’t sponsor the Indian cricket team due to some PWI’s auction purse related issue with the board in IPL V. After 12 days tussle, the Indian team sponsorship was revoked and they got what they wanted. Why not use similar strategies and broadcast IPL as well as cricket in general by creating “Sahara Cricket One”? When you can throw money around like that, expertise is never a problem. All one has to create is a culture and make people believe. Mr. Roy has made people believe that there exists a brand called Sahara. And what does it do? No one knows!

I must admit that he is an impressive businessman. No one knew what business Sahara was running, yet they had all the money in the world. Is that not every businessman’s dream? Their recent product that received much attention was OFCDs (Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures). And what is that? Investopedia says that “A Fully Convertible Debenture is a type of debt security where the whole value of the debenture is convertible into equity shares at the issuer's notice. The ratio of conversion is decided by the issuer when the debenture is issued. Upon conversion, the investors enjoy the same status as ordinary shareholders of the company.” Now, what does Optional FCD mean? Give me your money, in return for which I will give you OFCDs. I will use the money as I wish. I will sponsor the Indian cricket team, will buy IPL teams, build financial institutions, buildings, hotels and infrastructure and create media houses for the betterment of the country and its citizens. In return, I will offer you an OFCD by which you may have the option of owning a share of these aforementioned assets at the end of the tenure.

This is a dream come true for any businessman and he almost managed to do it until Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) intervened. Two days ago the Supreme Court upheld the orders passed by SEBI and Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) that had directed Sahara’s two firms – Sahara India Real Estate Corp. Ltd. and Sahara Housing Investment Corp. Ltd. to refund the money to the investors that they had raised through OFCDs. And the total money amounts to Rs. 24,029.73 crore. What Sahara did right or wrong is not for me to decide, but what I like here is Subrata Roy’s courage. He is 64 years old and is still young enough to play the game the hard way. He created a pseudo brand Sahara and established it in a big way! But the question still remains in my mind – What does Sahara do?