CHENNAI: Prasad V Potluri - a rookie NRI businessman who is raking in the moolah for producing a movie with a housefly as a hero -- is irate after his lone bid to buy Deccan Chargers' IPL franchise was shot down by Deccan Chronicle Holdings and their bankers. Having started his career as a techie running a software services firm AlbionOrion Corporation from the US, Potluri sold his business to the Kalpathi family-controlled SSI for $63 million in 2000.
In 2007, he re-entered the Chennai scene with another transaction with the Kalpathis. This time, Potluri raised several eyebrows in business circles when he purchased the 70-acre Binny Mills property from the Kalpathis for Rs 850 crore.
In 2008, PVP ventures sold its hotel property in Ooty through its subsidiary AGS Hotels and Resorts to Mahindra Holidays for Rs 33 crore. In 2011, the company sold its 90-ground (one ground amounts to over 2,000 sq ft) prime property at Vadapalani in Chennai to education group SRM for Rs 140 crore.
People who have tracked Potluri or worked with him say he is an extremely shrewd businessman who can jump from one business to another at a snap of the finger. This explains his pursuits in tech, real estate and, now, film production sectors.
"I am not going to talk a word about our aborted bid for Deccan Chargers. We have so far invested Rs 900 crore in various businesses in India. We have built solid assets and credibility in what we do," Potluri told TOI. "We are today India's largest film financier." Potluri has had his fair share of controversies. He was named in the first information report (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) when the bureau was investigating YSR Congress president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for disproportionate wealth.
"I have a stake in Sakshi (run by Jagan's media house). There are several other industrialists who have invested there," he said, before jetting off to Hyderabad.
The PVP Ventures scrip closed nearly 5% up at Rs 6.43 by close of Thursday's trade on the BSE, taking its market capitalization to Rs 157.7 crore.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Weve-built-solid-credibility-in-India/articleshow/16388428.cms
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