As for Apollo's home market, “India is today at the cusp of a golden era,” he predicted. “There is much hope and optimism that we are about to see the unleashing of our potential and finally take our rightful place in the global economy.
“The path ahead is not easy, but the prize itself is worth striving for. I am extremely confident that we will once again go back to the years of sustained high growth in India.”
Mr. Kanwar called the 2013-14 period “watershed years” for both India and Apollo, which took “bold and decisive steps” to shake off the shackles of the past.
“Your company too decided to shape its own destiny, rather than remain hostage to the vagaries of the markets, business cycles and raw material costs,” Mr. Kanwar told meeting attendees.
“We realized that operations on a global scale give us the leverage to manage increasingly consolidated customers on the one hand, and ever-larger suppliers on the other. Our confidence in our team and faith in you, our shareholders, emboldened us to put our strategy into action and attempt to acquire a company larger than us.”
Although the “strategic fit was perfect,” that strategy — Plan A — failed for many, well-documented reasons, the executive said.
“The next phase of your company's journey has just begun,” Mr. Kanwar concluded.
“Challenges are part of our lives; it is the opportunities that we need to focus on. I am optimistic and have equal faith in the future and the power of hard work which ensures that even as we work to create value for ourselves, even greater value is generated for the society that we live in.”