The Other Billionaires

Real estate, stock broking, media, and what have you...are all categories that are churning out moneybags by the dozen. Meet the big fish whose wealth is not always evident

It’s a tough job 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 one listed company and several unlisted ones or vast property or, all of these. They are shying away from going public, but from manufacturing to media, India has quite a few of them in the unlisted zone.

Take the first family of Indian print media – the Jains of Bennett, Coleman & Company, publishers of The Times of India and a host of other newspapers and magazines. Not even a bull run which has given other publishing houses such as Hindustan Times and Deccan Chronicles such mouthwatering valuations, has tempted them to list their firm. According to Capitaline Plus, Bennett Coleman earned a profit of Rs 514.38 crore for the year ended July 2004.

The company’s reserves now stand at Rs 1824 crore and if one were to accord a trailing price-earnings multiple of 50(which is what Hindustan Times commands), the market cap would be well over Rs 20,000 crore. All the celestial combination seem to be right in our next case. The nine satellite channels of Sun Network are proving to be brilliant successes for owner Kalanithi Maran.

Maran today is a media baron, whose investments account for an estimated 80 per cent of adspend in the South.. The Chennai-based company’s market capitalisation could be easily more than the Rs 1,000 crore market capitalisation that NDTV has today, given that a large chunk of the total adspend is accounted for by southern channels. Or take the families that own the Hindu Group of Publications. According to Capitaline, the holding company, Kasturi and Sons, had reserves to the tune of Rs 196.64 crore as in March 2004 while the net profits were around Rs 45 crore.

The Chennai-based Sivasailam and Krishnamoorthy families are the promoters of the Amalgamations group, with revenues of Rs 2,300 crore and a net worth estimated at Rs 900 crore. Capitaline lists TAFE, one of the group companies, as having reserves of Rs 419 crore as in March 03 and an EPS of Rs 30. At a price-earnings multiple of 10 times, that would mean a marketcap of Rs 250 crore. CK Ranganathan promoter of CavinKare, the FMCG and packaging group, also from the South, too has built up a fairly big business though there is no authentic estimate of his net worth. However, the company’s market cap is estimated by analysts to be around Rs 250 crore (one-tenth of Godrej Consumer’s ).

Another player in FMCG would surely be biscuit-baron Prakash Chauhan of Parle group who has the eponymous biscuit brand, soft drink brand Frooti, N’Joi and bottled water brand Bailley. Today the group is mainly into bottled drinking water, but again there are no confirmed estimates about the wealth of the family. Not to be left behind is brother Ramesh Chauhan who owns the Parle Bisleri brand and has plans of launching fruit juice brand in the near future. As per reports, his personal wealth is stated to be over Rs 100 crore.

Moving on, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is one gentleman whose life is all about valuations. His investments in a clutch of companies such as CRISIL, Trent, Titan, Karur Vysya Bank, BEML, TV Today, Pantaloon, GeometricSoftware and Praj Industries among others, have made him millions.

Mumbai-based Jhunjhunwala believes in looking for under-valued stocks and holding them till the value is unlocked. With the Sensex scaling new peaks, Jhunjhunwala’s net worth would easily be worth Rs 1,000 crore.

Now if the stock markets are booming, so is property. Real estate tycoons including Mumbai’s Hiranandani brothers (estimated net worth:over Rs 1000 crore) and Rahejas (estimated net worth: Rs 500 crore) would surely make the grade as would their peers in the Capital. Look at construction baron Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, the single largest investor in Tata Sons with a stake of over 18 per cent, who in his personal capacity sold 1.2 million shares of Tata Consultancy Services worth around Rs100 crore at the time of listing. The very private Misry’s networth was estimated conservatively at Rs 7,000 crore in 2001.

Among first generation entrepreneurs is Samprada Singh who runs the Alkem group of companies, which is into pharmaceuticals. Singh, who began life as a retail chemist and graduated to becoming a distributor for MNC pharma firms before turning industrialist, boasts a net worth close to Rs 200 crore. A big believer in the benefits of yoga, Singh is now looking to expand his business overseas.

India’s billionaires are also to be found in the sports and entertainment industry. Star cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s batting may not be so hot these days, but his net worth surely is. Tendulkar got a Rs 100-crore product endorsement fee a couple of years ago and runs Tendulkar’s, a chain of restaurants in Mumbai.

While we could go on, we’d like to end with the last word in Bollywood: Big B who has mesmerised millions with his talent and charisma and does not know the word retire. Whether it’s films or endorsements, Bachchan is going great guns, giving heroes, much younger than him, a run for their money.

Some years ago the Bollywood actor’s net worth was estimated at Rs 170 crore. Since then, the endorsements have only increased.•