Family break-up
I first met the young Abhinandan over a decade ago, when the Lodha Group had acquired Mumbai’s Shrinivas Mills and had launched the now famous ‘World One’ tower in Parel. It was a chance meeting at the office of a senior HDFC Realty officer. The Lodha scion was then negotiating a crucial Rs 500 crore loan for the Shrinivas project.
“We couldn’t go ahead without the HDFC loan. Though it was sanctioned by the realty team, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh said ‘no’. It was the post-Lehman Brothers period of tight finance, and though I tried my best, Deepak Parekh refused,” recounted Abhinandan in a recent interview.
For three days the young realtor sat outside Mr Parekh’s Churchgate office. Abhinandan Lodha recounted his experience: “By the second day, the chairman asked me: You are still here? I said – Yes! Where will I go? I need the loan, sir. Deepak Parekh nodded and went inside his office, but then again found me where he left me when he was leaving in the evening. This went on. By the end of the third day, the chairman relented. He called his team and told them to draw up the papers!”
In the early days when the Lodha Group, later rechristened Macrotech Developers, grew at a heady pace, the younger Lodha remained in the background leaving his brother Abhisheck to be the front face of the company. However, he cut his teeth early negotiating a record FDI deal of USD 410 million with Deutsche Bank when he was just 25. A few years later he drove the Rs 5,700-core land purchase of the Wadala container terminal that today is a sprawling 30-acre gated community called ‘New Cuffe Parade’.
In-charge of sales, marketing and finance, Abhinandan seemed to be doing well. So why did he split from the family company? “I did not want to be someone’s shadow,” he said. To the question, whether father Mangal Prabhat Lodha mediated to set things right with his brother Abhisheck, Abhinandan was diffident. He said the father was occupied with politics as an MLA and a major BJP functionary, and chose to stay away from the snarl.
Was the separation bitter? “Let’s say the separation was non-consensual; but it is not litigative either,” responded Abhinandan.
