Jail-released Indian businessman M.M. Ramachandran - popularly known as Atlas Ramachandran - is itching to start from scratch, yet again.
The owner of Atlas jewellery who had a chain of showrooms in the UAE, Gulf and India, had done it once in 1990 - when he lost everything and his business got wiped out during the Kuwait war.
Now, just days after securing his release from Dubai jail, where he served nearly three-years for loan default, the 75-year-old is planning to 'revive himself'.
"I will come back, no doubt about it. My business will be revived. My plan is to open one showroom in Dubai, and I will pick up from there. Atlas will soon regain its old glory," Ramachandran told Khaleej Times in his first-ever interview to a newspaper after the release.
"I am a self-made man. I built up my business standing at the counter and serving customers myself when I opened my first showroom in Kuwait in the 80s and in Dubai after the invasion of Kuwait."
READ: GOLD BIZMAN ATLAS RAMACHANDRAN RELEASED FROM DUBAI JAIL, THREE YEARS AFTER HIS ARREST
Sitting in the bedroom of his third-floor apartment, donning a distinctive Sherwani (Indian suit) and an undeviating friendly smile, Ramachandran could easily pass off as his good old self - the flamboyant businessman with a gold empire worth billions. He is hooked on to his laptop even as his phone line is incessantly ringing. He is fiddling with two or three of his old mobile phones. He has a list of visitors who want to meet him in the evening.
But the resemblance to the glorious past ends there. Much has changed in the last 33 months of his detention. All his 19 showrooms in the UAE are shut. Some of his assets were liquidated to pay off the financial obligations. His business friends and affiliates have abandoned him. He still has debts to repay. And age is catching up.
Repayment of debts
But Ramachandran is not willing to give up. He begins his battle by questioning the value of the debt itself. "The amount of the debt is highly exaggerated in some of the reports. I know better how much my debt is and I will pay it all back till the last dime," he said without divulging the exact figures.
He has a grouch that no one bothered to ask him. "I was in detention and my side of the story was never given voice.''
Atlas in crisis
So how did Atlas Ramachandran's business empire, which had an annual turnover of Dh3.5 billion, run into troubled waters. Where did he go wrong?
"I trusted people too much. I delegated to my managers things I should have attended myself. But good that I have learned that lesson, at least now," the businessman opened up to Khaleej Times in a free-wheeling conversation.
Reliving events that led to his jail sentence, Ramachandran said trouble started when a single payment to a leading bank in Dubai got delayed. "That was the first crack in an otherwise smooth running business. And that was the beginning of the problem.
...[ Continue to next page ]
Share This Post
