| The Richest Indian Overseas |
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Many non-resident Indians are piling up money like never before BS
Research Bureau If the Marwari industrialist maintains his group's scorching pace of growth, the LNM group may soon become the largest steel producer in the world. Currently, it is positioned at number two, after the France-based Usinor group. Having merged with Arbed of Luxembourg, and Aceralia of Spain in a $3.1 billion (Rs 14,201 crore) deal, Usinor has been the largest steel producer in the world since April 2001. However, Usinor's growth has no way diminished Lakshmi Mittal's personal worth. The UK's "The Sunday Times" this year estimated Mittal's wealth at œ1.3 billion (Rs 9,429 crore). In addition, he also consolidated his position as the richest Asian in Britain for the third consecutive year. Interestingly, Mittal is not just a mere money bag - he also lives it up. Said to be a big spender, he recently spent nearly œ7.1 million (Rs 52 crore) on buying a penthouse at London's tony Park Lane. He owns other interesting properties as well - besides the penthouse, he owns a œ9 million (Rs 65 crore) mansion in London and a house in Trinidad. He also flies across the world in his Gulfstream jet. While his wife Usha, 52, is involved in the business, his 27-year-old son Aditya leads new acquisitions. Daughter Vanisha is also scheduled to join the family business. The second on the totem pole is 44-year-old Sanjiv Sidhu. Clearly the second richest Indian living abroad, Sidhu shares this status with the 46 year old Vinod Khosla. Sidhu set up i2 Technologies, a solution provider for supply chain management. Though his company's fortunes were affected by the IT industry slowdown, he is still worth $1 billion (Rs 4,581 crore). In 2000, he was 24th on the list of the 400 richest Americans. In 2001, he ranked 109 in a list of the world's richest people. A native
of Hyderabad and the son of a chemist, Sidhu graduated from Osmania
University. He worked with Texas Instruments before he launched i2
Technologies. Sharing the podium with Sidhu for the second spot is
Vinod Khosla, co-founder of the multi-billion dollar Sun Microsystems.
Needless to say, both men on the list of overseas super rich Indians owe their billions to the information technology (IT) boom. Both Khosla and Sidhu are estimated to be worth $1 billion (Rs 4,581 crore), according to "Forbes" magazine. While seven Indians find a place in last year's Forbes super rich list, the list has shrunk and now has only three Indians in the list, thanks to the IT industry crash. Khosla lives in the US with his wife and four children. He's exceptionally qualified and did his masters in biomedicine from Carnegie Mellon and a masters in business administration from Stanford. In a recent statement Khosla re-affirmed that he had not lost faith in the technology sector. In an interview he observed: "What we saw in the last 10 years is peanuts compared to what we'll see in the next 10 (years)." If Khosla has reiterated his faith in the IT industry, 72-year-old Amar Gopal Bose continues to pioneer a revolution in "sound" technology. Bose Corporation sound systems are a global brand name and he is the third and the last Indian to be featured in "Forbes" list of richest Americans. Forbes ranked him 364 in its list of America's 400 richest people. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bose is now settled in the same city. Credited with the first factory-fitted car stereo system in 1982, Bose Corporation today is one of the world's finest and most premium manufacturers of home high-fidelity speakers. "Forbes" estimated Bose's net worth to be around $700 million (Rs 3,207 crore). In the Billionaire Club list of the 10 most richest Indians abroad, Bose is ranked fifth. Cornering the fourth position is the UK-based Jatania family, said to have an estimated net worth of about $900 million (Rs 4,123 crore). Mike Jatania and his brothers have done very well in the last year and, according to "The Sunday Times," their net worth went up by about œ22 million (Rs 160 crore). This was largely due to the public offer of their joint venture company EPIC Brand Investments. The Jatanias' cosmetics and beauty products company, Lornamead, has built its reputation on the back of hugely successful brands like Harmony hairspray and Stergene fabric conditioners. Though Waymade Healthcare may not be a beauty company, its owners Vijay and Bhiku Patel are the sixth richest Indians abroad. Waymade Healthcare is a well-funded pharmaceuticals company. Interestingly, the Patels are in a tie with Jasminder Singh of the Edwardian group. They have an estimated at a net worth of œ350 million each or about $553 million (Rs 2,534 crore). Waymade is a established pharma company that supplies and distributes branded and generic pharmaceutical products to customers in the UK and abroad. Founded in 1975 by Vijay Patel and incorporated as a public limited company in 1984, Waymade has grown from its retail roots into a broad-based pharmaceutical company. Headquartered at Basildon, Essex,it employs more than 600 people in a 100,000 square feet facility. Jasminder
Singh's Edwardian group of hotels recently hit the headlines when
it announced that the group had taken over the prestigious InterContinental
May Fair London hotel for œ115 million Rs 834 crore). Eighth on the list of the richest overseas Indians is Tom Singh, who runs a garments business that specialises in women's wear. The UK-based Singh's company, New Look, has seen its net wealth go up to an estimated $395 million (Rs 1,810 crore). Singh, who remains a non-executive director and design adviser at New Look, has a 12% stake in the company. Last year, he sold six per cent of his stake to institutional investors, which netted his family a cool œ31 million (Rs 223 crore). The garments
industry is impressed with New Look's share of the over-16s women's
wear market. Its closest competitor is a brand called Next and the
two retailers are second only to Marks & Spencer. Gulu Lalvani of Binatone comes in 10th with a net worth of œ150 million (Rs 1,077 crore). In the UK, Binatone Telecom PLC continues to be a leading telecom product supplier, with an average 25 per cent volume brand share for the last decade. In the last 42 years, Binatone has been at the forefront of cutting edge telecom equipment design, development and manufacturing. Binatone sells its products globally through exclusive distributors under the Binatone brand. It also supplies products to other leading companies to be sold under their own brand. The Hinduja brothers have seen their net worth go up from about pound 650 million (Rs 4,714 crore) last year to about pound 670 million (Rs 4,860 crore) this year. Outside India, the Hindujas' assets include Gulf Oil, estimated to be around pound 400 million (Rs 2,880 crore), and another pound 70 million (Rs 504 crore) in property and other assets. What has helped the group is the fact that most of its companies are in tax havens like the Bahamas, Panama, Liberia, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. The world seems to have quite a handful of rich Indians. However, details on many of them are not available. Among them are the Hong Kong-based Harilela brothers. The six brothers George, Peter, Gary, Mike, Bob and Hari, run a multi-billion dollar business. Each brother handles a specific arm of the business -- hotels, real estate, restaurants, travel agencies and seats on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The multi-billion dollar family recently forayed into banking sector and set up East Bank in New York. The Harilelas' main business continues to be hotels and the group expects to set up a hotel in New York and Paris. It now operates and owns luxury hotels in Hong Kong (Imperial Hotel and Holiday Inn Golden Mile), Singapore, Bangkok, London, Penang and Montreal. It's adding another one in Sydney, which will be run by the Sheraton group. Hats off to global Indian enterprise. * This is a modified version of an earlier story |
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