When Jyothy’s then deputy managing director, Ullas Kamath, proposed to buy over Henkel India’s operations in 2010, there was stunned silence in the boardroom. Only two years earlier, Dusseldorf-based Henkel had made an offer to buy Jyothy Laboratories. This time, Kamath not only dared to make an offer, but also asked the German board to take a break from India for five years and then acquire a 26% stake in the merged entity.