Lalwani to sell ZyXEL stake for $1mn

NEW DELHI, INDIA: With the intention to totally focus on his own business, Mahendra Lalwani, who was till now the Director of ZyXEL India, has not only resigned from the company but has also decided to sell his stake. It is estimated that Lalwani will get close to $1 million from the sale of his stake.

Lalwani’s departure, the process for which started last week, came as a surprise to many. Last week ZyXEL issued a statement announcing the appointment of Kerming Chen, President—Emerging Market Regional Business Unit as the MD of ZyXEL India. The communication was however, quite about what Lalwani’s role

would be.

ZyXEL commenced its India operations in 2006 and Lalwani had been heading ZyXEL India since then. Talking about his experience Lalwani said, “I had a good time working in ZyXEL as I had several learning experiences. I gained the opportunity to work with large corporates in telecom companies. However, I wanted to concentrate on service sector and hence I decided to move on and focus on DelDSL.”

When prodded about his reasons for moving on he added, “My only reason behind leaving ZyXEL was to increase the focus on my project on Internet service providing.”

Refusing to divulge the name of the buyers who have picked up his stake in ZyXEL India, Lalwani said, “The buyers are a Taiwanese and Chinese company and the deal will be closed within two weeks.”

Discussing his journey till now, Lalwani informed that he founded TelExcell Information Systems in June 1993 to provide communication products and solutions to Indian customers. TelExcell was ZyXEL’s country distributor when the vendor first entered the India market in 2006. Lalwani was entrusted with the responsibility of commencing ZyXEL’s operations in India after a brief meeting with Dr Chu, Chairman, ZyXEL.

“My journey with ZyXEL has not been a smooth one. After two years of struggle, I have been able to understand the way channel functions in India. I have now been able to put a clear channel model in place. I faced challenges at TelExcell as I was dealing with system integrators and the manner of operating with them is completely different,” informed Lalwani.

Talking about his future plans he said, “My company, DelDSL, was started six years back and I always wanted to put more focus on service sector. In the current situation, I wanted to expand my company and heading towards that I will first take national license for providing Internet service and then will look at expanding the network across the country. However, my reach to customers will be direct and this time I will not be taking the channel route.”