Sudipto Bhattacharya: Deputy General Manager

In conversation with, Sudipto Bhattacharya, Deputy General Manager (M&A) at Tata Communications. Before working at Tata Communications, he started his career at Cairn India Ltd as an Associate later becoming an Assistant Manager there. We would like to understand the role of a Corporate Development Department (M&A) from him

 

1. Describe your work and work profile in a very simple manner?

   

I work in Corporate Development for Tata Communications, a Tier-I digital infrastructure provider. My role basically involves :

• • Driving and enabling the company’s inorganic growth strategy through acquisitions.
• • Realigning the focus on core assets and business growth through asset monetisation initiatives like divestitures and portfolio optimisation.
• • Exploring opportunities for co-investment with financial and strategic partners to unlock growth.
• • Capital structuring
• • Exploring and engaging in growth opportunities by expanding to newer markets.
• • Integration of acquisitions to deliver synergies across functions.

This role is a combination of corporate strategy and buy/sell side transacting. A typical transaction process could be broken down into 4 basic elements, namely :

• • Seeking out investment opportunities (origination).
• • Conducting and facilitating investment analysis (due diligence).
• • Negotiation, transaction structuring and financing (execution).
• • Post deal activities (integration).

 

2. Can you share your Daily Routine with us?

Depending on the volume of transactions being parallelly pursued, my daily routine is highly variable.

• • As we work in a follow-the-sun environment, most workdays start with really early morning meetings.
• • The day proceeds with a host of meetings with different stakeholders on a variety of issues. It could begin with a valuation discussion with the CXO, moving on to a meeting with a banker on potentials in a particular technology space, or with legal advisors on structuring alternatives. It can also be an interaction with the marketing comms and compliance team regarding stock exchange announcement for an upcoming transaction close or a meeting with the internal IT team on the provisioning of new email ids to the employees of a recently acquired entity.
• • In between all this, I also get super urgent calls to use my excel ninja skills to analyse the quarterly performance of an entity I’ve been tracking for a long time which has suddenly released its earnings.
• • With a lot of work already unfolding, I make some time to work on that DCF model that has been staring back at me from my toolbar and provide sanity check comments on that other model a junior emailed me two days back.
• • In between all of this, I also read up on that new Bloomberg article on “How Hash graph is the new Block chain killer”.
• • At times, it’s very hectic and workdays could be as long as 18 hours, at other times, I can leisurely work from home and quietly wrap up a 9-5’er.

 

3. How did you reach this stage in your career?

After graduating as an Engineer I enrolled in the coveted, Aerospace Master’s Program at IISc Bangalore. But as luck would have it, due to certain unavoidable circumstances I had to drop out, mainly to pursue an MBA program closer to home. As I always had an interest in both technology and finance, I started my career at an oil and gas firm where I worked in corporate finance and economic analysis. This helped me get a fine exposure to business analysis, valuation and risk management. The 2 years of exponential learning here proved to be a cornerstone for a future career in strategy and M&A.
  Later, I received an offer from Tata Communications which was working at unlocking significant value in Virtual networks like Cloud, IoT, AI and other such sunrise sectors which were very new and exciting to me. Also, it was around this time that the US Shale revolution was turning the economics of the oil and gas industry and this persuaded me to accept the offer. I have been lucky to have been provided ample opportunities to learn and grow as a Corporate Development professional here at Tata Communications.

 

4. What skills should a candidate possess if he wants to take up a profession similar to yours?

If you’re working as a Corporate Development professional, you will have to work closely with a plethora of stakeholders and also, you will be the central point for everyone involved in a transaction, from internal teams like R&D, legal, finance, investor relations and marketing to external ones like tech-entrepreneurs, bankers, consultants, and governmental agencies.
A good background in corporate finance and fundamental corporate law is essential. However, communication skills and an aptitude to work well under pressure is also important. A commonsensical approach to business analysis and a good grip on numbers can make an aspirant worthy of this designation.

 

5. What are the Pros & Cons of your profession?

Pros :

• • This profession involves a good deal of accountability and responsibility in the senior level decision-making process. You are usually at the nerve center of the firm and its strategy.
• • You get good exposure to people from different areas of business both internal and external to the firm.
• • A fast track growth trajectory
• • Exposure to new technologies and/or business models (tremendous learning opportunities).

Cons :

• • Unpredictable work routine
• • Low strike rate of project completions (1 out of maybe 4-5 transaction processes reach definitive agreement stage).

 

6. What is the best way to bag a job similar to yours?

Although I did not start my career from banking or investment analysis background, as most Corporate Development professionals usually come from one of these two backgrounds. The other route which can help you get this type of job is to work in the corporate strategy teams of larger corporate firms.

 

7. What advice would you give to the freshers who are willing to venture into this line?

Explore all learning avenues. Any skill learned never goes to waste, people with varied skills are always valued. Very few jobs have a single-minded focus on a single skillset and Corporate Development is no different. Corporate Finance, Fundamental Corporate Law and communication skills are also of particular significance.
Always try to stay on top of new technology / business themes. M&As follow broader themes and as such are either reactive or proactive actions in response to these.

 

Final Notes

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