As Finance Professional, Keep Things Straight, Transparent, Fair: CFO, Max India

Senior living and assisted care firm, Max India's CFO, Sandeep Pathak, in an interview, discusses how his multidisciplinary training broadens his perspective as a CFO and gives his advice to budding CFO.

“As finance and compliance professionals, our task is simple – keep things straight, transparent, and fair for all stakeholders. It increases investor confidence, especially when you are publicly listed,” he shared. 

Max India in the past has gone through corporate restructuring (healthcare business) and sold businesses (health insurance), deployed proceeds towards growth capital, and also rewarded shareholders via capital reduction and significant value creation. All this has helped Max India pivot in the right direction, Pathak said.

Max India has focused its efforts on building Antara, an integrated senior care ecosystem spanning senior living, assisted care, and condition-specific products (under the brand AGEasy).

Antara senior living communities are present in Dehradun, Noida, and Gurugram, while its care homes are present in Delhi–NCR, Bengaluru, and Chennai. Edited excerpts.

Your educational journey spans B.Com (Hons), Law, CA, CS, and Cost Accountancy—a rare combination. What would you advise aspiring finance leaders today—should they chase it all or go deep in one domain?

Such multi-disciplinary education and training was more of a personal choice for me. While growing up, when I was studying in the early 2000s, I attempted to learn whatever I could, and the professional qualifications I pursued were quite interconnected with significant subject overlaps, which created interest and led to my educational journey.

In my current role as CFO and Head Legal at Max India, I can make good use of my education. While dealing with any complex situation or transaction, I can wear multiple hats at the same time and look at the problems and solutions from different lenses at the same time, thereby optimizing the outcomes.

Having said that, aspiring finance leaders need not chase it all – a combination of one or more qualifications is good to handle business situations. The institutional education these days is more comprehensive, business-oriented oriented and practical than it used to be. So, in my view, a CA, CMA, or MBA, or a combination thereof, can work wonders, as it can equip the aspiring CFOs comprehensively.

As CFO of Max India, what are the most critical decisions you’ve had to make when it comes to capital deployment? What is the capital allocation strategy? 

Our allocations are currently divided between the residential senior living vertical, Antara Senior Living Limited, and the assisted care and products vertical, Antara Assisted Care Services Limited, both of which are part of the same integrated ecosystem. 

Our businesses are being operated through wholly-owned subsidiaries that are in constant need of growth capital as we expand across geographies and increase our product portfolio offerings. 

To raise growth capital for our subsidiaries, we recently concluded a rights issue offering at Max India (listed at BSE and NSE) of around Rs 125 crores and monetised some non-core assets worth over Rs 100 crores.

From a CFO lens, what is your view on the future of the senior care industry in India heading into FY26?

Currently, the size of the Senior Care industry in India is around $ 11 billion, and it is expected to grow to around $ 25 billion by FY2030, with a high Return on Capital Employed (ROCE). Max India is positioned to tap into that growth as it provides an integrated ecosystem for senior care in India, and on account of the group’s experience in healthcare, hospitality, and infrastructure. 

 In the last few years, Antara launched an asset-light model to provide services to seniors; evaluated and determined lucrative and scalable Care Homes models; introduced at-home services as an adjacency to Care Homes, and developed a robust portfolio of senior care products through the B2B channel.

It is now looking forward to banking upon the access to the customer base in Antara residences, harnessing the established hospital and doctor networks, and also leading the front in advising the government on policy making. Being the only senior care player in India that has the capability and a fully developed spectrum of senior care services and products, it is aiming to be EBIDTA positive in around 3 to 4 years.

Max India has gone through significant restructuring over the years. As someone who's been at the center of it, what are the biggest learnings you’ve had managing finance during a transformation phase?

Such transformations are important in the life of any corporation. Some examples of significant transformation include Reliance, which started as a textile company, Lamborghini started as a tractor company, Samsung started as a grocery store, and LG was making facial creams; the ultimate learning is that business organizations need to keep pivoting and keep evolving for growth and value creation, and value enhancement.

As finance and compliance professionals, our task is simple – keep things straight, transparent, and fair for all stakeholders. It increases investor confidence, especially when you are publicly listed. Max India has gone through corporate restructuring (healthcare business) and sold businesses (health insurance), deployed proceeds towards growth capital, and also rewarded shareholders via capital reduction and significant value creation. All this has helped Max India pivot in the right direction.