Six roles, one question: where does the cash really come from?

Mandate

Reduce debt, rebuild product-level profitability in the US business and give a promoter-led board a clearer view of cash and risk.

Outcomes

• Funded a ₹285 Cr Unit III remediation; the site was classified VAI in March 2024 and the warning letter closed out in February 2025.
• Cut net debt from ₹1,060 Cr (1.9x EBITDA) in March 2023 to ₹410 Cr (0.5x) in March 2026.
• Reduced stockist inventory from 46 to 29 days and expiry returns from ₹38 Cr to ₹14 Cr a year.
• Exited 23 loss-making US products; US gross margin rose from 47 per cent to 55 per cent.
• Commissioned a ₹215 Cr first-phase starting-material block, cutting input costs for three molecules by 14 per cent.

Decisions in context

I returned to Meruvel in July 2020, nineteen years after I first joined it as a plant cost accountant. The company had grown to ₹3,620 crore of revenue since listing, but its debt was climbing and its US business had never been examined product by product. My mandate from the managing director was to reduce debt and show the board where cash was really made. The warning letter at Unit III in May 2022 changed the order of work: remediation came first, and the portfolio exits, the channel correction and debt reduction were planned around it. I lead 210 people across Hyderabad, the plants, Mumbai and New Jersey, with eight direct reports, and I attend every board and Audit Committee meeting without being a director of the company. By March 2026 revenue was ₹4,860 crore, EBITDA ₹826 crore and net debt half of one year's EBITDA.

Reason for the move

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

Mandate

Strengthen controls, manage exposure to price control and prepare the subsidiary for GST.

Outcomes

• Moved billing and tax systems to GST in July 2017 across 24 depots and agents without losing a billing day.
• Rebuilt the portfolio plan after two brands came under ceiling prices following the 2015 national list of essential medicines, holding gross margin within one percentage point.
• Defended the royalty to the parent with benchmarking studies in two transfer-pricing assessments.
• Reduced receivable days from 61 to 44.

Decisions in context

This was my first role as the senior finance officer of a company, and my first inside the Indian branded market. The subsidiary sold speciality medicines to doctors through 1,900 representatives, made most of them at a plant in Baddi and paid its European parent royalties and import costs of about ₹180 crore a year. I reported to the Indian managing director and functionally to the regional CFO in Europe. The 2015 national list of essential medicines brought two of our brands under ceiling prices, and I rebuilt the portfolio plan around margins that price could no longer restore. The GST transition in July 2017 required new billing and tax arrangements across 24 depots and agents within a few months. I also defended our royalty in two transfer-pricing assessments. Writing for a parent that could not see India taught me to put the judgement and its evidence on the same page.

Reason for the move

Invited to return to Meruvel as CFO of a listed company, responsible for a US business as well as a domestic one.

Mandate

Give the US business a product-level view of profitability and a reliable estimate of its sales deductions.

Outcomes

• Replaced a single deduction percentage with product- and customer-level accruals for chargebacks, rebates and returns.
• Reduced the quarterly true-up between estimated and actual deductions from 3.1 per cent of gross sales to 0.6 per cent.
• Planned the accounting and supply finance for the company's first 180-day exclusivity launch.
• Cut US receivable days from 74 to 52.

Decisions in context

As head of finance for the North America business, I was responsible for the numbers behind ₹1,650 crore of revenue by 2014–15 and for a team split between Ahmedabad and New Jersey. The central problem was sales deductions. Chargebacks, rebates, returns and price adjustments took well over half of gross invoice value, and the business estimated them with broad percentages that produced large corrections each quarter. We built accruals by product and customer, reconciled them monthly with the largest wholesalers and reduced the true-up from 3.1 per cent of gross sales to 0.6 per cent. I also planned the finance for the company's first 180-day exclusivity launch, where supply, deductions and returns had to be right before the first shipment left. I moved on to take charge of a whole finance function, including a domestic branded business I had not yet managed.

Reason for the move

Wanted responsibility for a complete finance function, including a domestic branded business, before seeking a listed-company CFO role.

Mandate

Build management reporting for a fast-growing export business whose profit was known by region but not by product.

Outcomes

• Built the first product-level contribution statements for 90 US products.
• Introduced a monthly reconciliation of chargeback claims with the three largest wholesale customers.
• Prepared the business case for the US subsidiary's own warehouse, approved in 2009.

Decisions in context

I joined Kavyansh Remedies in October 2006 to build management reporting for its regulated-markets business, then worth about ₹780 crore across the United States and Europe. The business was growing quickly through new approvals and its reporting had not kept pace: profit was known by region but not by product. With a team of nine, I built contribution statements for 90 US products and a monthly reconciliation of chargeback claims with the three largest wholesale customers. That work showed for the first time which products paid for their plant time and freight, and it became the foundation of the North America role I took in 2010. I also prepared the business case for the US subsidiary's own warehouse, approved in 2009, which reduced reliance on third-party logistics and gave the company direct control of returned goods.

Reason for the move

Promoted to lead finance for the North America business.

Mandate

Bring batch-level costing to a plant preparing for its first USFDA pre-approval inspection.

Outcomes

• Built batch costing that traced every exhibit batch from raw material to finished pack.
• Reduced unexplained material variance from 2.4 per cent to 0.7 per cent of consumption.
• Supplied the cost evidence for pricing decisions on the plant's first US products.

Decisions in context

I joined Meruvel in April 2001 as cost accountant at Unit II, an oral-solid plant outside Hyderabad, when the company was founder-owned and sold mainly to semi-regulated markets. I became plant finance controller in 2003, with a team that grew to six. The plant was preparing for its first USFDA pre-approval inspection, and I rebuilt batch costing so that every exhibit batch could be traced from raw material to finished pack. Unexplained material variance fell from 2.4 per cent of consumption to 0.7 per cent. I worked every day with production and quality managers and learnt that their records and mine described the same events from different sides. Meruvel listed on the NSE and BSE in 2005. I left in 2006 because I wanted to understand how a US generic earns money after the invoice, and the company had no role yet that could teach me.

Reason for the move

Wanted to learn how a US generic earns money after the invoice, which Meruvel did not yet have a role to teach.

Mandate

Plan and run statutory audit fieldwork for manufacturing clients.

Outcomes

• Led fieldwork on about 14 statutory and tax audits a year.
• Introduced physical verification of solvent and work-in-progress stocks at bulk-drug clients.
• Trained 11 articled assistants over four years.

Decisions in context

After qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1997, I stayed with the Hyderabad practice where I had trained, working as an audit senior. I ran fieldwork on about fourteen statutory and tax audits a year, six of them for bulk-drug manufacturers in the industrial belt north of the city. My teams usually had three to five articled assistants, and I trained eleven of them over four years. The defining experience came at a bulk-drug client's year-end in 1998, when physical verification showed that solvent recovery had stopped being recorded. The figures had balanced on paper for months. We then introduced physical verification of solvent and work-in-progress stocks across our bulk-drug clients. I left in 2001 because I wanted to be accountable for decisions inside a plant rather than test them after the event.

Reason for the move

Wanted to work inside a plant and be accountable for decisions, not only test them afterwards.