THE NEW TORRENT

The 'pharmaceutical to power' group has kickstarted a makeover plan with focus on renewables and diversification into health.

- P.B.JAYAKUMAR

Perestroika, meaning 'restructuring, was launched in the erstwhile Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or the Soviet Union, by its then Communist Party leader and later President Mikhail Gorbachev in mid-1980s. It was expected to transform the USSR's stagnant economy. The movement failed and the economy plunged into deeper turmoil. USSR disintegrated into 15 independent countries by 1992. Nearly 4,700 kilometres from Moscow, in Ahmedabad, perestroika brought a leading pharmaceutical company, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, near bankruptcy.

Sitting on the patio of his lush green riverfront farmhouse and gazing into the gushing muddy Sabarmati on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on a wet monsoon morning, Samir Mehta, executive chairman of healthcare to energy major Torrent Group, shrugs off that misadventure with a laugh. "He (Gorbachev) may not have known us, but perestroika almost broke us, as 90% of our business was coming from USSR," he says. Bringing the business back on track meant years of lost opportunities. Torrent Pharmaceuticals missed the ship to U.S., the biggest market for generic drugs, when peers Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's were building presence there. Torrent entered power in 1996 but restricted itself to distribution and transmission when peers Adani Power and Tata Power were setting up big greenfield coal power plants. The group, in fact, had to sell a greenfield power plant in 2000 soon after construction. The foray into financial sector did not work out. In 1998, founder U. N. Mehta passed away and Sudhir Mehta, elder brother of Samir Mehta, took charge as chairman of Torrent Pharmaceuticals and Torrent Power.