MD Rahul Khosla talks about his vision for Max India

The last one-and-a-half years with Max India have been ‘pure pleasure’, says managing director Rahul Khosla. Analjit Singh, the promoter of Delhi-based insurer Max India, stepped down as managing director in favour of an outsider, Rahul Khosla, who was earlier with Visa.

CNBC-TV18's Senthil Chengalvarayan caught up with Khosla, on The Forbes India Show, to discuss his journey so far with Max and the road ahead.

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Below is the verbatim transcript of his interview to CNBC-TV18

Q: You took up this assignment about a year and a half ago. Max the group is largely associated with one man for a variety of reasons with Analjit Singh. You are a professional who had worked most of his life with companies like multinationals – Visa, ANZ, Greenlay's, Bank of America. What convinced you or how did he convince you that you could fit into a promoter-led organisation?

A: People say hindsight is 20-20. If I had to take the decision today as I had taken then, it would have been taken in half a nano second with what I know now.

Q: How long did it take then?

A: In every such decision there will always be some degree of fact findings, some degree of risk that is taken by both parties. I think are embodied in the group are something which one resonates to very well. Analjit Singh was seeing the potential for the group in such a manner that he believed that he needed someone to be able to take on the executive role, to be able to drive to optimality in terms of the headroom that existed in each of these businesses.

For himself he had thought through a very particular journey which he is on, which he had consulted very deeply and widely before he sort of embarked on that and even embarked on the search for someone like me.

Q: What was he looking for?

A: He was looking at a much more strategic, visionary level, much more definition of the character of the group and somebody who could take on that and execute it professionally to be able to optimise the results.

Q: Are you working towards what he had planned or did you come in and see that things perhaps had to move about differently but within the framework of what had been laid down?

A: Yes. Last one and half years have been a pure pleasure in terms of aligning what the vision ought to be over the next decade. Seeing what is going to be important and allowing ourselves the luxury of consulting each other in terms of the key decisions that we need to take which is what I do. However, I have the ability to speak to him which I do very often.

Q: About 15-18 months ago you have had two major investments come into the company - one, in the healthcare and one in the insurance business. So, was that part of your brief?

A: Very often you don’t plan these things. These are opportunities that come by. However, I will say that we are blessed by being in sectors which are very attractive. These have long term attractiveness in this market. So, there will be lot of volatility. Everybody has heard of regulations in life insurance and what not.

We are long term players for perpetuity in these businesses. Therefore, we have built them with that spirit.

Our current partners who have now come in Mitsui Sumitomo, Life Healthcare, etc, they know that's our spirit and that’s our approach. They also know that the headroom for growth in these businesses is very high. They are also aligned in our thinking in terms of long term play. Therefore they have the ability to give us very handsome valuations which has been very fortunate.

Q: How difficult were negotiations with them?

A: It is always difficult.

Q: Was it made more difficult by the fact that at the time they made this decision India was not seen as a great place to invest in. How much of a bargaining tool did they use?

A: The good thing is these partners came in with a long term vision for this business. In every bit of chaos you will always find the gems that you must pick-up even in markets which are very volatile or troubled. Quite frankly coloring every business or industry or opportunity with the same brush is hardly good business practice. I would commend these partners for knowing that these sectors so to speak had high headroom for growth.

What is also very important and I must say this, that this group has for decades actually built very good reputation of being very good partners. There are a bunch of partners that we have done business with, who if you ask today will tell you they are best friends with the Max Group.

So, we believe that partners bring value to the table and not just capital. However, an aligned view of the business and a long term perspective that we would like to partner them with.

Q: So, they didn't bargain too hard?

A: They bargained very hard and so did we. We made sure that it was a win-win. They were very happy with what happened.