From site accounts to the CFO's chair, place by place

Mandate

Reduce debt, bring project working capital under control and give a promoter-led board a clear account of what each order costs before the client pays.

Outcomes

• Cut net debt from ₹890 Cr (4.0x EBITDA) in March 2019 to ₹140 Cr (0.4x) in March 2026.
• Reduced Projects contract assets from ₹520 Cr to ₹270 Cr while divisional revenue rose from ₹980 Cr to ₹1,320 Cr.
• Released ₹410 Cr of non-fund-based limits in fourteen months; long-term rating moved from BBB+ to A.
• Held delivered margins on fixed-price orders within 0.8 points of bid through the 2021–22 plate-price surge.
• Moved promoter-group fabrication into open tender, lowering average prices by about 7 per cent.

Decisions in context

I joined Ilvara in June 2019, when the company had revenue of ₹2,050 crore, net debt of four times EBITDA and banks' limits for guarantees that were nearly exhausted. Sudhir Kanetkar, the managing director, asked me to reduce debt and to show the board what each order really cost to carry. The pandemic year cut revenue to ₹1,870 crore and made the work more urgent. We changed billing terms in Projects, began locking plate and currency at signing in Process Equipment, recovered stale instruments from clients and brought promoter-group suppliers into open tender. I lead 145 people across Vadodara, Dahej and our UAE subsidiary, with six direct reports, and I attend every board and Audit Committee meeting without being a director of the company. By March 2026 revenue was ₹3,140 crore, the order book ₹6,850 crore and net debt less than half a year's EBITDA.

Reason for the move

Current role. Not seeking an executive move; considering one independent directorship with the Ilvara board's consent.

Mandate

Give the investor monthly reporting it could rely on, refinance the foundry's debt and prepare the company for a sale.

Outcomes

• Brought the monthly close to seven working days, with metal cost and casting yield reported by foundry.
• Refinanced ₹310 Cr of term debt in 2016 at about 1.6 percentage points lower interest.
• Ran a board-approved twelve-month programme of forward cover on euro receipts.
• Presented ₹130 Cr of sustainable EBITDA in the 2019 sale, ₹21 Cr below the advisers' draft; no warranty claims followed completion.

Decisions in context

Varunika was my first role as the senior finance officer of a company. Shrikant Mohite had built the foundry from a single cupola in Kolhapur, and Tamarind Peak Capital had bought 46 per cent of it in 2013 to fund a second foundry at Belagavi. The fund's two nominee directors read every number twice, and I learnt to write board packs that answered their second reading. We moved to a seven-day monthly close, reported metal cost and casting yield by foundry and refinanced ₹310 crore of term debt in 2016. Revenue grew from ₹640 crore to ₹1,060 crore, with wind-turbine hubs and tractor castings for European customers making up much of the growth. The sale process in 2018 and 2019 was the hardest test: I presented sustainable EBITDA ₹21 crore below the advisers' draft, and the buyer's diligence closed in six weeks.

Reason for the move

The buyer absorbed Varunika's finance function into its own after completion in May 2019, and I chose to take a listed company's CFO role.

Mandate

Bring the parent's bid-approval discipline to an Indian subsidiary growing quickly on domestic power and process-industry orders.

Outcomes

• Built a review gate for every bid above ₹50 Cr, covering milestones, bank instruments, liquidated damages and euro content.
• Introduced contract cash curves; the share of the order book with negative cash beyond six months fell from 31 to 12 per cent.
• Cut losses on euro-priced imports by covering each contract's imported content at award.
• Recovered ₹64 Cr of retention money held beyond its contractual period.

Decisions in context

I moved to Pune in August 2009 to run commercial finance for the Indian arm of a German boiler and heat-recovery group, then growing fast on orders from captive power plants and process industries. My team of fourteen reviewed about sixty bids a year before they left the building, working through payment milestones, bank instruments, liquidated damages and the share of each contract that would be imported and priced in euros. The parent's project controllers insisted on a cash curve for every bid, and I came to see why: two of our most profitable-looking contracts were also our largest consumers of working capital. We cut the share of the order book with prolonged negative cash from 31 to 12 per cent and recovered ₹64 crore of overdue retentions. I left because I wanted a whole finance function, not one part of it.

Reason for the move

Wanted to lead a whole finance function as CFO, which the subsidiary's structure did not offer.

Mandate

Recover price-variation and extra-work claims and give management a contract-by-contract view of cost and cash.

Outcomes

• Recovered ₹118 Cr of escalation and extra-work claims over five years.
• Built contract-wise cost and cash statements for 40 active contracts.
• Drafted the company's responses to government audit observations on claim settlements.

Decisions in context

After four years on site I moved to the corporate contract finance team in Nagpur in July 2004, promoted to deputy manager and later to manager. Most of our contracts with steel and power clients carried price-variation clauses linked to published indices, and a surprising share of the money we were owed sat in escalation and extra-work claims that nobody had the time to prepare properly. My team of eleven rebuilt those claims from site records and index data, and we recovered ₹118 crore over five years. I also built contract-wise cost and cash statements for forty active contracts, the first time management could see which jobs consumed cash. Because we were a government company, every settlement could later be examined by government auditors, and I drafted our responses. I left to work where contract terms were set rather than recovered.

Reason for the move

Wanted commercial responsibility at the bid stage, before contracts were signed, which the role did not offer.

Mandate

Run site accounts and client billing for a blast-furnace expansion package.

Outcomes

• Reconciled supply and erection billing with the client's installation records every month.
• Reduced uncertified bills awaiting the client's approval from ₹46 Cr to ₹9 Cr.
• Introduced measurement-based payment for erection sub-contractors.

Decisions in context

I joined Nirmitika in February 2000 as an assistant manager and was posted almost at once to a site office in Odisha, where the company was supplying and erecting a ₹420 crore material handling package for a blast-furnace expansion. With a team of four I ran site accounts, paid sub-contractors and prepared every bill we sent the client. The work taught me the difference between what a company has supplied and what a client will certify. When I arrived, ₹46 crore of bills were waiting for certification because our records and the client's did not match. We began reconciling the two every month, item by item, and the backlog fell to ₹9 crore. I also moved our erection sub-contractors to payment on measured work, which cut disputes sharply. In 2004 I was promoted to the corporate contract finance team.

Reason for the move

Promoted to the corporate contract finance team in Nagpur.

Mandate

Plan and run audit fieldwork for transport, ginning and engineering clients.

Outcomes

• Ran fieldwork for some sixteen audits each year across Vidarbha.
• Introduced job-by-job cost testing at engineering-workshop clients.
• Supervised and trained nine articled assistants.

Decisions in context

I qualified as a chartered accountant in November 1997 and stayed with the Nagpur firm where I had trained, starting as an audit senior in January 1998. Our clients were the businesses of Vidarbha: coal transporters, cotton ginning mills and engineering workshops that made parts for larger companies. I ran fieldwork on about sixteen audits a year with small teams of articled assistants, nine of whom I trained. The workshops interested me most. Their profits depended on how each job was priced and costed, and their records rarely showed it, so I began testing costs job by job instead of in total. That habit followed me into every role since. By the end of 1999 I knew I wanted to be inside an engineering business making its decisions, not visiting once a year to check them.

Reason for the move

Wanted to work inside an engineering business rather than audit one after the event.