Emerging as the new turnaround expert in the Rs 40,000-crore Tata group, the 61-year-old unassuming chief executive has yanked Voltas around, soon after a similar Houdini escapade with the Tata group pharma arm Merind.

Around christmas eve, the diversified Tata company is acknowledging a market crescendo: The scrip has recorded a four-fold increase through the year to touch Rs 100.35 on Wednesday after two years of virtual exclusion from the party. It looks even better against the BSE Sensex which crashed 21.3 per cent during 1998.

In its two core areas, air-conditioning and engineering, Voltas is at last visibly doing enough to light a fire under its scrip. Memories of the Merind miracle have not faded awayyet when the turnaround allowed the Tatas to get a better price for the company. Within 18 months of Khurody's joining, Voltas turned around at the end of the first half of the current fiscal, posting a net profit of Rs 1.8 crore. It had recorded losses of Rs 9.5 crore and Rs 16.8 crore in the preceding two years.

Says an analyst: "Voltas' ruling market price is way above its book value of Rs 43.6, indicating that expectations and interest in the scrip are sharply on the rise."

Since April 1997, Voltas has embarked on a major restructuring exercise after posting its first-ever loss, with the aim of turning it into a leaner outfit and a thrust on bottomline growth rather than on the topline.

Voltas diversified aimlessly under the MRTP regime, going spectacularly wrong each time. Khurody, who found himself saddled with a workforce of 11,000-plus in a Rs 1,400-crore company, had a job few would envy.

Voltas first identified divisions bleeding the company, with the aim of divesting in them at theearliest. But distress sales had to be avoided at any cost. The roster of disinvestments run up in 15 months is largely complete already -- the pesticides division to sister company Rallis India and the thermostat division to British MNC Seibe Plc, a 49 per cent shareholding in SMS India to the German partner, and a lease-out of the LPG division to a privately-held company.

The white goods division, which was bleeding the most, has been hived off into a joint venture with Electrolux AB, with Voltas retaining a mere 26 per cent, the proceeds of which will flow in by the year-end. The venture has rights to the Allwyn and Voltas refrigerator and washing machine brands. The Voltas brand will revert to the company after four years, possibly as a dead brand.

The management has built on three core areas: Air-conditioning and refrigeration, engineering products and projects, and chemicals trading. "The idea was to be in the businesses where we were leaders or very close to the leader," says a companyofficial.

Hiving off the white goods division was the most crucial step, as the company was also saddled with a huge workforce of Allwyn, which Voltas had to absorb when it took over the division in 1994.

The Rs 250 crore-odd that the company will receive through the sale of various non-core businesses will be used mostly to pay back high-cost debt. The remaining is expected to go into manpower reduction, which still stands at 7,000-plus.

Voltas has thrown the gauntlet with a range of trendy air-conditioners to meet the growing challenge from Carrier Aircon, priced at the same level as the multinational company. It has cemented new marketing tie-ups for heavy engineering products, and bagged two huge orders from Coal India.

The "hidden assets", substantial real estate around the country, are being harnessed through lease deals (including one for the corporate office, Voltas House). Huge profits are looming in the inevitable sales that will follow an economy upturn.