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UNLISTED PASHAS Real estate, infrastructure, commodities, and what have you...are all categories that are churning out moneybags, says V Keshavdev Let’s face it. It’s tough to determine how wealthy an Indian businessman is. One measure of wealth is the value of his shareholding in his companies, the yardstick the Billionaire Club uses. But a lot of individuals may not own companies but may have invested in them. They might also own several unlisted companies, or vast property or, all of these. And they come from a wide range of sectors – manufacturing to real estate to stock broking , and what have you.
Talk about mineral wealth and you cannot ignore mining majors V S Dempo & Co and MSPL Ltd. Dempo started out in 1941 as a trading concern, diversified into stevedoring and later seized the opportunity of mining concessions granted by the then Portuguese government. The flagship, headed by the 37-year-old Shrinivas Dempo has diversified into other businesses such as calcined coke, media, industrial paints, foods and beverages. The Rs 1000 crore V S Dempo & Co has a net worth of Rs 230 crore. While Dempo diversified into other businesses, MSPL Ltd stuck it out as an iron ore mining, processing and exporting company. Narendra Kumar Baldota, along with sons Rahul and Shrenik , is now steering the fortunes of MSPL, which has a net worth of Rs 390 crore. The Delhi-based Dharampal Satyapal group has over the decades grown into a Rs 1000 crore diversified business conglomerate with over 12 successful brands, including tobacco brands Rajinigandha and Tulsi.
With the once-battered textiles sector back on the growth track, several production units are weaving tales of success. From a modest production unit in 1981, the Vijay Mahtaney-owned Ambattur Clothing has now evolved into Rs 640 crore group manufacturing apparel for some of the world’s leading brands. The Tamil Nadu-based company, with a net worth of Rs 272 crore, shot in the limelight following the sale of its ColorPlus brand to Raymond and trouser manufacturing unit to Celebrity Fashions.
Taking on the might of multinationals in the fiercely fought detergents market, M P Ramachandran has carved a niche for Jyothy Laboratories in the fabric whitener and household care segment. The company, worth Rs 222 crore, today has a rich brand portfolio comprising Ujala, which has more than 60 per cent share of the fabric whitener market, dish-washing bar Exo, mosquito coil Maxo and herbal soap Jeeva. While it is a known fact that individual brilliance helps spawn billionaires, there are exceptions. Take the case of diamond trading major, Karp Impex. Run by Virani brothers – Kishor, Anil, Ramesh and Pankaj – the traditional and conservative family from Kathiawad (Gujarat) has built a formidable diamond trading entity. Today, Karp Impex has a net worth of over Rs 200 crore. Karp is probably the only diamond manufacturing company to have set up a huge township, comprising hospitals and schools, for its 2500-plus workers in Rajkot. Khushboo Patel, brand manager, says, “Apart from being a workaholic, he (Kishore) is also a high risk taker. He
had this amazing ability to choose artisans. He picked up skilled
potters as he believed they had the natural ability to give a round
finish to diamonds, and for cut diamonds he chose traditional carpenters
as he believed they had a more-than-perfect right-angle vision.”• HOME Business Standard • October 2006 |
Take
Kushal Pal Singh, who owns 99.5 per cent of DLF Universal, the holding
company of the country’s largest realty group,. which was valued
at Rs 1,00,000 crore by investment bankers in the run-up to its
IPO. The company has deferred its IPO following a delay in Sebi
clearance and opposition from some minority shareholders. But the
owner of the DLF group must be glad that he quit the army to join
his father-in-law’s business and didn’t pay heed to the
colonel-in-charge’s warning that he would forever be known
as the coward who ran away.
One
of the prominent members in the unlisted category is L Madhusudhan
Rao, chairman of the Hyderabad-based Lanco group, which is into
execution of power and infrastructure projects. According to Capitaline,
the group has a net worth of Rs 300 crore and the order book at
Rs 20,000 crore is full to the brim. The 42-year old Rao, whose
passion is car-racing, wants to hit the fast lane with an IPO (the
promoters are offloading 25 per cent of their 100 per cent stake
in holding company Lanco Infratech). “We are expecting a valuation
of Rs 8500 crore for the company,” Venkatesh Babu, managing
director of the company, says.
C
V Jacob is the promoter of Synthtite Industrial Chemicals with revenues
of over Rs 200 crore. The low profile Jacob, who started off in
1972 with just a plant to produce oleoresins in Kochi, is now the
owner of a company which accounts for over half of the country’s
spice extract exports. Allanasons Ltd, headed by Irfan Allana, is
another company (net worth of over Rs 750 crore) which has made
it big from agricultural commodities exports.
Rajiv
Kumar, a hands-on second generation entrepreneur is the driving
force behind the group (net worth Rs 317 crore). When he is not
making money, Kumar loves to collect artifacts from all over the
world.
Moving
on, we have a relatively low-profile Rs 700 crore Gharda Chemicals
emerging as a dominant agrochemicals player. Keki Gharda has managed
to give the company a net worth of Rs 317 crore, and bring a process
development and R&D edge over peers. The company recently sold
its polymers division, which has an R&D centre and production
unit in Panoli, Gujarat, to the Belgium-based Solvay group. Now
there are talks of Tata Chemicals taking over the company, one of
its biggest suppliers. Unlike most other billionaires, Gharda has
no heirs. There have been unconfirmed reports of Keki Gharda planning
to create a trust which will run the company after his lifetime.