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MUMBAI, Aug. 2

THE London-based newspaper, Financial Times, has named Mr K.B. Chandrasekhar of Exodus Communications as one among the many top executives who baled out with bags of money before the companies they ran crashed into bankruptcy.

Interestingly, Mr Chandrasekhar was the Chairman of the SEBI Committee on Venture Capital set up in 1999. Mr Sabeer Bhatia of Hotmail fame was the other prominent person on the 20-member panel.

Fourth in FT's list of executives titled `Barons of Bankruptcy', Mr Chandrasekhar had set up his company, Exodus Communications Inc., with the help of venture capital funding after traditional financiers refused money to the Web-hosting start-up.

According to the paper report, Mr Chandrasekhar, "who founded Web-hosting company Exodus Communications from his two-bedroom Cupertino, California, apartment in 1994 with less than $5,000, reaped $131 million, including $87 million in profits from options cashed months before he stepped down as chairman in June 2000''. His gross earnings in that year were $350 million.

The SEBI committee, headed by Mr Chandrasekhar, had said in its report that the development of a proper venture capital industry was necessary to bring to market high-quality public offerings.

Rooting for easy investment and exit options, the committee had said investors got enticed into public offers of unproven and dubious quality. The situation could be corrected by venture capital-backed successful enterprises accessing the capital market, it had said citing statistics from the US experience.

The prophetically named Exodus Communications is the 14th largest American bankruptcy according to the survey. It had assets of $6 billion when it filed for protection and the value lost since 1999 was $1.4 billion. The crash cost 1,290 people their jobs.

On top of FT's line-up of `survivors who laughed all the way to the bank amid disasters' is Mr Gary Winnick of Global Crossing, who grossed $512 million. Immediately above Mr Chandrasekhar is Mr Kenneth Lay, former Chairman of Enron, who took home $247 million while the energy giant collapsed under a heap of debt and dirt.

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