L&T is a heaven for engineers: campus recruits who work diligently often rise to assume the mantle of business leaders. Here is such a typically atypical story!
 
The year was 1989, and Anupam Kumar had just completed his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Mesra (Ranchi) when L&T plucked him from the campus. Back then, L&T’s construction business did not have verticals, just disciplines – Civil, Mechanical and Electrical – and Kumar was placed in the Mechanical section.

 

His first posting as a graduate engineer trainee was at the Budge Budge Thermal Power Plant near Kolkata that L&T was setting up for CESC.

 

Over the next few years, Kumar worked at various projects undertaken by L&T – fabrication work for a power project at Tenughat in Jharkhand, a cement plant at Sonadih in Madhya Pradesh, Kansbahal Works manufacturing unit in Odisha in connection with the Durgapur Steel Plant moderanisation and a Tata Steel expansion project in Jamshedpur.

 

The “lovely, diversified experience in planning, MIS, manufacturing and construction” that he accrued from those postings augmented his “brand value”.

 

In 1992 Kumar was assigned the role of Contracts Manager at L&T’s Kolkata regional office. The very next year, he was again sent to Jamshedpur to another steel plant project. Married by then, Kumar continued this way – a few years in Jamshedpur and a year or two in Kolkata – while getting promoted on the way.

 

The defining moment in Kumar’s career came in 1999 when he was involved in a unique project at the “F” Blast Furnace at Tata Steel Jamshedpur. This gave him a whole new perspective in innovation and conquering challenges in construction.

 

Thereafter, he was made a Project Director – simultaneously overseeing five steel plant EPC projects in Jamshedpur. That was the time when L&T did away with the discipline-based organisation structure and reorganised itself by creating several business verticals. Kumar’s function was parked under the newly created Metallurgical & Material Handling (MMH) vertical headquartered in Kolkata.

 

In 2011, Kumar became the Head of Ferrous Business Unit of MMH and, in 2016, became the Head of MMH itself. By then, MMH (now renamed Minerals & Metals – M&M) had become the largest EPC player in the Indian metal industry, undertaking projects right from concept to commissioning for various PSUs and private companies and growing the manufacturing business at Kansbahal and Kancheepuram. It also expanded to the Middle East, while making a mark for L&T in aluminum and gold EPC projects.

 

Then came a quantum shift in Kumar’s professional life. He moved from M&M to become the CEO & MD of L&T Realty effective April 2024. Leaving behind eastern India, his workplace for over three decades, Kumar relocated to Mumbai in 2022, charting a new course for himself as well as L&T Realty.

 

Bappaditya Paul recently sat across Kumar, discussing his eventful professional journey and the plans that he has for L&T Realty. Excerpts:

 

 

A: In my near 35-year career, the first major move came in 2005 when I was elevated as a Project Director almost overnight. The second time it was in early 2022, when, one fine day, our CMD S N Subrahmanyan asked me to move into L&T Realty as its CEO & MD designate. There was no hint or discussion before: it just happened. He said: “Go there, and you will know what you are missing.” So, in April 2022, I relocated to Mumbai – lock, stock, and barrel.

 

 

 

A: It was a very big transition for me. As compared to the fragmented world of real estate, minerals & metals is a process technology-oriented sector. Also, when I moved out of M&M, revenue-wise it was four times bigger than L&T Realty. And I didn’t know even an inch of real estate!

 

But the very good thing about L&T is, when you have gone through the rigour of engineering, procurement and construction in any business, you know that nothing can be more difficult than that!

 

Having said that, the dynamics in realty is altogether different: you need to know more about customer preferences, address their concerns, build your brand through superior offerings, financial modelling, partnership management, evolve a business model, and so on.

 

In EPC projects, you win orders from customers and execute it; here you have to incubate a project, source the funds, manage sales, undertake facility management, customer relations, etc., etc. So, it’s been really exciting.

 

 

 

A: Real estate has traditionally been very fragmented and crowded by all sorts of players. But with the introduction of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, and GST, the survivors now mostly are those players who are very solid, have credibility, integrity and deep pockets. Then COVID brought further consolidation.

 

So, I tell the team that we must seize this opportunity: we cannot be doing only 4-5 projects at a time. We must pace up the whole thing: while we should take up projects mindfully, we can’t bind ourselves to a limit. Don’t be fearful of expanding: we have to grow, grow 5X and more. And when the business grows at that pace, there is much space for everyone to grow faster in their career.

 

 

 

A: The past one year has been very eventful (for us). We signed several new projects and started 4 large projects. In FY24, we developed projects of about 7 million sq ft; this fiscal year it has already risen to 20 million sq ft, and when the year closes, it will be upwards of 25 million sq ft.

 

We started big luxury projects – like the one at Sewri (near MTHL in South Mumbai). We started another at Mahim (West Mumbai) and as of now it’s the only gated community in that area. There is a project at Thane that we are starting, which at 5 million sq ft, is the biggest ever in L&T Realty.

 

We have signed many other projects – five in south Mumbai, two in the eastern suburbs, one each in Panvel and Powai. Also, advancing the development of 15 million sq ft commercial spaces in Powai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Indore, Coimbatore, Pune – to be completed in phases over the next 3-4 years.

 

Scaling fast, we are advancing our Lakshya 2026 profitability  target, which we will achieve in FY25 itself – that’s a year in advance. So, the team is now hungrier.

 

 

 

A: Well, Mumbai has numerous opportunities and is a pricier market. But we don’t want to become a Mumbai- centric company, because if you limit yourself to one city and something (negative) happens to that market, then your business gets affected. At the same time, it would be a mindful geographic expansion.

 

We already have projects in Chennai, Bengaluru and NCR. Going forward, the plan is to grow that market to at least 40% of our portfolio so that there is an equilibrium. We are also exploring Pune.

 

 

 

A:   We   are augmenting the team strength to address the heightened activities in sales, marketing, customer relations, design, construction and facility management. Innovation and agility are being infused in every activity. Partnership management, prompt customer redressal and massive digitalisation are some of the focus areas.

 

Construction is one space where we definitively score over other developers. We complete a 26-storey project in about 2 years, others take 3.5 years. For a 50-55-storeyed building, we take 3.5 years, others will do that probably in 6-7 years. This generates a huge amount of confidence in our customers.

 

 

 

A: We can deliver faster because L&T provides several unique advantages that most developers lack. L&T’s deep experience and unique construction practices stand out vis-a-vis its peers who have limited exposure and face challenges every now and then. Because L&T handles diverse types of projects, we have an unparalleled pool of skilled workmen that other builders struggle to find.

 

Furthermore, we are continuously standardising our designs / offerings which enable replicability and speed, and leads to bulk procurement and onboarding of key partners on long-term basis, thereby facilitating a huge optimisation opportunity.

 

 

 

A: Residential accounts for major chunk of our portfolio, and in the time to come it will grow more. Out of our 60 million sq ft current portfolio, 45 million is residential and 15 million is commercial. With the impetus in other markets, viz. NCR and Bengaluru, the intention is to grow in the residential space with large, premium, luxury housing and taking up a few large township projects.

 

Of late, commercial space is getting lot of traction as policy reforms by the government is bringing in many global capability centres (GCC) to India. With the momentum in GCC office space and improvement in cap rate, property valuation and rental yield have gone up. We would cautiously move in this segment and evaluate opportunities as they come. The emphasis will be to gradually grow rental income in the next 3 years.

 

As regards segment focus, premium apartments have always been our forte and it will remain that way. We have started moving towards the luxury segment and would try establishing our brand in that space. Going by market trends, people are now preferring larger apartments. Their earning power has increased and when both husband and wife are working, they don’t mind investing in real estate which is giving good appreciation and beating inflation by a wide margin.

 

 

 

A: This will happen someday, because when you want to grow 5X, your internal accrual will not be sufficient to fund that aspiration. But listing is a big responsibility and hence our whole endeavour is to first build a robust organisation and maintain a sustainable pipeline of projects. We want to go steady and build a robust portfolio before getting listed.

 

 

 

A: Be ever ambitious and positive. When you are ambitious, even if you don’t achieve it all, you will hit something which will be above normal. My experience is that life will bring many surprises: you have to embrace them and find your own opportunity in that.