After years in the finance field, Angad Banga joined the family fold at The Caravel Group. Today, as COO, he oversees an expansive portfolio that includes maritime shipping services, commodity trading and investment management, all with the hopes of preserving the company’s legacy for generations to come…
What was it like to grow up within the Banga family?
Well, my family moved from the UK to Hong Kong in 1985 when I was just 15-months-old so, for all intents and purposes, Hong Kong is very much my home. While there was an emphasis on education, my parents were always very supportive and allowed me to just be a kid and pursue my own interests. As most of our family were still in India, my fondest memories are of holidaying in my paternal grandparents’ home in Chandigarh and playing cricket on their front lawn with my cousins.
Were you always destined to join The Caravel Group, the family business?
Actually, there was never any real pressure to join as there was not really a family business per se. Although my dad, Harry Banga, was vice-chairman and the second-largest shareholder of the Noble Group, it was more an institutional organisation rather than a family-run enterprise.
In 2010, he stepped down from his own role with the Noble Group. Over the next few years, he took on some of the businesses he had started there, eventually bringing it all under The Caravel Group, which formally launched in 2013 / 2014. This has now become, as you have suggested, our family business.
And, today, what is the core offer of the company?
The Caravel Group has three primary areas of activity. The first is Caravel Maritime, which includes Fleet Management, our flagship operating business. This business was founded by my father under the Noble Group umbrella in 1994. We acquired Fleet Management from Noble in 2011 and brought it under The Caravel Group upon the establishment of the business. Today, we’re the second-largest ship management company in the world, operating more than 600 vessels across the world’s oceans. Caravel Maritime also includes Caravel Shipping, which provides in-house and third-party dry bulk commercial and chartering services, as well as maritime asset ownership.
Our second arm is Caravel Asset Management, with a primary focus on direct investments in global liquid markets including public equity and credit, across all industries. We also invest in alternative investments – mainly private equity and hedge funds – to diversify risks and sustain long-term return. We also run a direct private equity business, with a portfolio that includes India’s largest beauty omni-channel retailer, Nykaa, and Hong Kong’s largest craft brewery, Young Master Ales.
Finally, there is Caravel Resources, which trades industrial dry bulk commodities, with a focus on raw materials for steel making and power generation. As an industrial dry bulk supply chain manager we’re involved with moving and trading commodities from producers to consumers, including iron ore, thermal coal and metallurgical coke. Today, collectively, these businesses operate across 15 plus countries.
In addition, while we’re first and foremost a business, we’re also committed to giving back to society. Thus, we’ve established the Caravel Foundation, a Hong Kong-based charity with a focus on children’s education and healthcare.
As the Group’s Chief Operating Officer, what are some of your particular areas of responsibility?
In short, I see my role as being a strong steward for this organisation: to help Caravel maintain its strengths, to enhance our capabilities, and to grow. I feel like it’s my responsibility to grow and develop our leadership team with a clear vision, to drive The Caravel Group forward into the next generation.
That said, my day-to-day responsibilities are about ensuring the smooth running of the wider organisation. As the various arms of the Group are managed independently, part of my job is to liaise with the Chief Executives of those divisions from a corporate perspective. Part of my remit is also to focus on the future and to drive our strategic initiatives, whether that’s mergers and acquisitions, human resources or the exploration of new verticals.
What criteria do you look at when investing in third-party businesses?
I think one of the most important things to look at is “who”. While you’re backing a business, more critically you’re backing a person. Ultimately, believing in the CEO, the founder, and the leadership team, as well as having faith in what they can deliver, is paramount. We won’t invest if we don’t trust the founding team. At the same time, gauging the value proposition of the business and the problem they’re trying to solve is also important. In the case of Nykaa, for instance, we studied the demographics in India and the e-commerce and beauty trends across the world before agreeing to invest.
How has the group coped over the past 12 months, one of the most challenging times to ever be in business?
While 2020 will go down as an unprecedented year, a time organisations and individuals suffered a great deal, our business – thankfully – came through incredibly well. For our part, we provide employment to 1,000 people across the world, with a further 20,000 working on the ships we manage. That means that, roughly, 100,000 people are economically dependent on us, so it was very fortunate that we recorded 10-percent year-on-year growth in business volumes, with a net income growth of about 50 percent over that same period. Ultimately, it’s testament to the strength and resilience of our people that we expanded despite all the turbulence and uncertainty.
What are some of the unique aspects of running a family business?
From a personal point of view, I never thought I would be working with my dad. Having experienced it, though, I really treasure working with him and learning from him, particularly as there wasn’t really a family firm looming on the horizon while I was growing up, so all of this is something of a bonus.
From a professional perspective, one of the biggest strengths of a private family-run organisation is that because we don’t report to any shareholders, we can afford to take a more long-term approach and focus on the strategic direction of the company. This, in turn, affords greater overall stability.
The culture of a business like ours is also rather different as there’s an inherent level of trust and ownership at every tier. When you trust those around you, it breaks down the traditional barriers to building and running teams, allowing you to focus on generating ideas and executing solutions. Building lasting family organisations means you are more likely to put in the extra hours and effort needed to make it a success, which drives a different level of commitment altogether.
Looking back on your career, what do you see as the biggest hurdle you ever faced?
After I graduated from Dartmouth University with a degree in Economics, with honours, I spent two years working as investment banker for JP Morgan. Most of my career was spent with KKR prior to joining Caravel. In between, though, I was hired by Blackstone for a relatively short period. That was just before the global financial crisis and I’d been hired as part of a team briefed to grow Blackstone’s credit investing footprint in Asia. Unfortunately, once the crisis hit and the economy tanked, I found myself without a job. It was a terrible time. I was just 24, scared witless and had no real idea as to what to do next.
That difficult period taught me the importance of a number of things – empathy, resilience and the importance of hard work – that I still prioritise today, and which, I believe, have enhanced my leadership style. I also learnt the importance of focusing on those things that you can control, while not worrying too much about those beyond your remit. Finally, it taught me the merits of taking a chance on people. Soon after that, I was fortunate enough to be hired by KKR and it was one of the best things to happen to me. They took a chance on me. And that really changed my life.
Thank you.
Interview by: Tenzing Thondup
Art Direction & Styling: Jhoshwa Ledesma
Photos: Jack Law
