Indian industrialist Rajeev Jhawar: The man who adorns many hats
Rajeev Jhawar, Usha Martin
Rajeev Jhawar, the son of Brij Jhawar, is the managing director of Usha Martin Limited since May 19, 2008. Established in the year 1960, Usha Martin is a multi-unit and multi-product organization in the wire rope business. Usha Martin is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of wire rope. Rajeev Jhawar is also the Director of Neutral Publishing House Ltd. He is also a Member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Member of The Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India and on the board of 17 other companies.
Rajeev Jhawar, Usha Martin
Rajeev Jhawar is the Managing Director of Usha Martin Limited. He is the son of Brij Kishore Jhawar, the founder of Usha Martin. Rajeev Jhawar has three daughters – Stuti Jhawar, Shreya Jhawar and Amisha Jhawar. Brij Kishore Jhawar is one of the two factions of the Jhawar family, who owns the company. Rajeev Jhawar has been the Managing Director at Usha Martin Limited since May 19, 2008. Rajeev Jhawar is an alumnus of Ranchi University and has also completed his graduation in Industrial Services from London Business School.
The Jhawar Family also owns the Neutral Publishing House Limited, among many of its companies. The family consists of two octogenarian brothers – Brij Kishore Jhawar and Basant Kumar Jhawar. While the family jointly held 51% of the stake, the rest of the retailers held only 49% of the stake of Usha Martin Limited. Jhawar Family also owns 95.47% shares of Neutral Publishing House Limited, the company which publishes Prabhat Khabar. The family members of the Jhawar family hold different positions in many of the group companies.
Both Basant Jhawar and Brij Jhawar have grown the business into a large wire rope conglomerate in the country. Later on, their sons joined the business. Rajeev Jhawar, the son of Brij Kishore Jhawar, was involved in the manufacturing of products. And he does his part perfectly. Rajeev Jhawar then took charge of the company, which later acquired some wire rope companies in Europe and turned the business profitable.
In his past career, Rajeev Jhawar was Director-Finance & Commercial at Tropical Agrosystem India Ltd., Managing Director at Usha Martin Industries Ltd. and Director-Finance & Commercial at SBQ Steels Ltd. Rajeev Jhawar started his journey at Usha Martin Limited as Sr. Vice President (Commercial) and later became the Managing Director of Usha Martin Limited. Established in the year 1960, Usha Martin Limited is a multi-unit and multi-product organization in the wire rope business. In his three decades of service at Usha Martin, Rajeev Jhawar had always paved way for the company to reach greater heights.
Usha Martin Limited underwent the incorporation process in the year 1986 under the name Usha Beltron Ltd. Since its inception, the company had been seeing immense growth and was elegantly walking up the ladder for the past years under the leadership of Rajeev Jhawar. The first wire rope reel rolled out of the company in 1962. Its public issue in 1961 was oversubscribed by more than 300 per cent. In 1963, Usha Martin Limited paid its maiden dividend and doubled the production from 3,600 tonnes to 7,200 tonnes in just two-and-a-half years.
Usha Martin Limited soon became one of the largest manufacturers of wire ropes in the world and the leading speciality steel manufacturer in India. The company is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of wire rope. Their wire rope manufacturing facilities are located in Ranchi, Hoshiarpur, Dubai, Bangkok and UK. Usha Martin produces one of the widest ranges of wire ropes in the world. Usha Martin Limited, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells wires, wire ropes, and strands products in India and internationally.
Rajeev Jhawar led Usha Martin’s wire rope business manufactures wire, strands, LRPC and wire ropes, which cater to various industries, including steel, infrastructure, construction and auto. The company also offers wire ropes, including oil and offshore, crane, mining, elevator, fishing, aerial, and general engineering ropes, as well as ropes for conveyor cords and structural systems. It also manufactures a range of industrial machines, including wire drawing machines, stranding machines, wire rope closing machines, steel plant equipment, cable machines, and material handling equipment; machines for manufacturing bright bars; machines for armoring and rewinding; and copper coating lines for CO2 welding wire manufacture.
Few years back, Usha Martin underwent through a turmoil. But with the strategic intervention of Rajeev Jhawar, Usha Martin moved again into the trajectory of success. Rajeev Jhawar hived off the steel division of UML to Tata in 2019, thereby deleveraging the balance sheet of the company and led them to a reasonably healthy position. As a global giant in the wire rope industry, the company’s future remains promising and it is poised for a significant rerating from here. Usha Martin Limited has turned profitable post debt reduction and is billed as one of the most successful turnarounds of stressed assets. The strategic move of Rajeev Jhawar to sell Usha Martin’s steel business to Tata Steel had enabled them to significantly deleverage their Balance Sheet and focus on their core competencies. This has already started yielding results and has placed them in a position of strength.
Post divestment of its steel business undertaking, Usha Martin has improved with renewed vigor with its focus on capability building, removing constraints and increase in productivity of key products to remain agile and competitive. In order to continue to be sustainable, resilient and future ready, Rajeev Jhawar and Usha Martin is preparing for plans for augmenting capacity and capability building. Rajeev Jhawar is hopeful that with steady infrastructure spending by the Indian government, specialty products used in construction and infrastructural sectors may become one of the key growth drivers for the company in the upcoming years. Usha Martin expects growth in export volume in South-East Asia, Australia, USA, Canada, Latin America and South Africa in the following years from these sectors. Rajeev Jhawar is currently working on the expansion of the company in terms of capacities and increasing the business into new geographies.
In addition to his position of Managing Director at Usha Martin Limited, Rajeev Jhawar holds 9 other board and advisor roles. Rajeev Jhawar Usha Martin has been the Vice Chairman of Usha Martin Education & Solutions Limited since September 2010. Rajeev Jhawar also serves as an Executive Director of Usha Martin Limited. He is the Chief Financial & Compliance Officer of G J Steel Public Company Limited (Iron & Steel). He has been an Independent Non-Executive Director of Orient Cement Limited (part of CK Birla group companies Construction Materials) since August 09, 2014.
Rajeev Jhawar serves as the Director of Usha Martin International Ltd. and Usha Martin UK Ltdp. He is also a director on the boards of Usha Martin’s overseas subsidiaries, i.e., Usha Siam Industries Public Company Limited in Thailand and Brunton Wire Ropes FZ Co. in Dubai. He is also the Director of Usha Breco Ltd since Apr 19, 1969. He serves as the Director of Usha Breco Realty Ltd since Jun 29, 2005. Rajeev Jhawar is also the Director of PARS Consultancy & Services Pvt. Ltd. since Oct 27, 2010. Rajeev Jhawar has been a Non-Executive Director at Usha Martin Education & Solutions Limited since March 4, 2000 and the Director of KGVK Rural Enterprises Ltd, KGVK Social Enterprises Ltd, Redtech Networks India (P) Ltd and Jhawar Venture Management Pvt. Ltd.
Rajeev Jhawar is also the Director of Neutral Publishing House Limited which has a leading regional newspaper under the flagship title ‘Prabhat Khabar’ published in the Indian cities of Patna, Dhanbad, Ranchi, Jamshedpur & Kolkata. He has been the Director of Usha Breco Limited since March 30, 2010. Rajeev Jhawar is also the Director of Gustav Wolf Speciality Cords Ltd., Usha Communications Technology Ltd. (Guernsey), Prabhat Khabar and Summit Usha Martin Finance Corp. Ltd. He also serves as the member of The Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India and The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
