01. Sunil Vaswani
Chairman
Stallion Group
Industry
$7.2bn
It takes a while. Quite a long while. But eventually, Sunil Vaswani tells Arabian Business the rather simple reason he has become the Gulf’s richest Indian, with a personal fortune estimated at $7.2bn.
“You know something? I just never give up. If I set my mind on something, I just go for it and keep trying until I get it. Be single-minded. Rejection doesn’t bother me. It took me four years to get the first automobile franchise in Africa.
They kept saying ‘no, we will deal with a Japanese company’. Four years of saying no, four years of rejection. But I got it. Nothing is impossible.”
02. Feroz Allana
Founder
IFFCO Group
FMCG
$4.5bn
Last year’s leader of the rich list has been relegated to second place, but there’s no need to feel sorry for Feroz Allana. The FMCG magnate is still worth a cool $4.5bn. His son Irfan Allana is the chairman of the Allana Group, but Feroz is credited with its staggering success. His vision and business acumen not only drives his business, but also ensures that his expertise is liberally employed by the federal government and various state governments of India, in the development of long-term plans for exports from India in general and agro-based products in particular.
Established in 1975, IFFCO is a UAE-based business house, which manufactures and markets a well-integrated range of consumer products. IFFCO operates under the following business segments: fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), commodities, oils, frozen foods and institutional services. IFFCO also manufactures related derivatives and intermediates associated with these business segments. IFFCO brands include London Dairy, Tiffany, Noor, Rahma, Igloo and Al Baker.
03. Dr Ravi Pillai
Founder
RP Group
Construction
$3.6bn
Rising by one place this year, our estimate of Dr Ravi Pillai’s wealth has swelled as a result of rapid business expansion over the course of the last 12 months.
With over 80,000 employees today, his company is a multi-billion-dollar operation. Not bad for the boy from Kerala who at the age of 14 started running his first business just so he could pay for school books.
“To me it’s just been one step at a time, it’s never been about the money, just trying to work hard and do things the right way,” he told us last year. The Saudi-based RP Group has interests in construction, travel and tourism, healthcare, retail and education sectors. The most prominent of these is Nasser S Al Hajri Corporation, the largest industrial contractor in the Middle East.
Dr Pillai has an MBA from Cochin University and an honorary doctorate from Excelsior State University in the United States. In 2007, Dr Pillai was bestowed with the coveted Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the president of India for his commendable services to Non-Resident Indians and exemplary track record in entrepreneurship. Next on Dr Pillai’s hit list is Dubai, where his RP Global subsidiary has huge plans in the property, education and hospitality segments.
04. BR Shetty
Founder
NMC Healthcare
Healthcare
$3.3bn
The man from Mangalore made global headlines last year with his eye-catching takeover of exchange giant Travelex.
Completed just two weeks ago, the deal will see Travelex merged with Shetty’s home-grown giant UAE Exchange — with the new merged company all set to list in Abu Dhabi by 2017. If anything, the deal proves Shetty’s determination to keep on building what is already an impressive portfolio of businesses. Shetty is pretty much an institution in his own right having created one of the UAE’s best-known medical outfits. He is considering opening hospitals in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, with further expansion across the MENA region once political stability returns.
Shetty arrived in Abu Dhabi in 1973, establishing New Medical Centre (NMC) two years later.
He also quickly set up UAE Exchange, which accounts for 12 percent of all remittances to India. Shetty was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2007, and the Padma Shri in 2009 for his services to trade and industry.
05. Yusuffali MA
Managing director
LuLu Group International
Retail
$3.21bn
Fresh from meeting Barack Obama during the US president’s recent trip to India, Yusuffali MA has seen plenty of highlights over the past year or so. The LuLu International Group founder has announced bumper investments in India, Saudi Arabia and the Far East — altogether worth well over $1bn. The company also took a hefty stake in the UK-based East India Company, opened seven hypermarkets in the GCC and India, and also launched the biggest hotel in Kerala — the Marriott Kochi — in December.
All in all, LuLu International now has 112 stores in the Gulf, Yemen, Egypt and India, while Yusuffali himself has substantial investments in three of India’s biggest banks. According to Deloitte, the firm is the biggest retailer in the Middle East and one of the fastest-growing in the world, ranking in the top 200 companies. Not bad for a virtually penniless man who made his way to the UAE in 1973 on a small boat to work in his uncle’s tiny distribution company.
06. Raghuvinder Kataria
Chairman
Kataria Holdings
Banking and finance
$3bn
With investments in the UK, the US, Denmark, Germany, the UAE, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, Kataria Holdings has a genuinely global reach. Raghuvinder Kataria is one of the best-known wheeler dealers in the region with a spectacular track record of success. Raised in Uganda, Kataria moved to the UK as a young man. Early in his professional career, he led the formation of JT Telecom — a joint venture between Telia of Sweden and Thailand-based Jasmine Telecom — that pioneered mobile telephony in India. That JV company later merged with Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Enterprises to provide coverage across the world’s second-most populous nation.
Today, Bharti Airtel is the number one provider in India and the third-largest in-country mobile operator in the world. Kataria remains a founding shareholder in that company — which now serves nearly 250 million subscribers
07. Shaji Ul Mulk
Founder and Chairman
Mulk Holdings
Industry
$1.8bn
Shaji Ul Mulk is the founder and chairman Mulk Holdings.
Mulk Holdings is a multinational group with diversified business interests in Manufacturing of Metal Composites, Healthcare, Real Estate, Trading & Commodities, Aluminium Coil Coatings, Solar Energy & Energy Generation. The company with its headquarters based in Hamriya Freezone Sharjah, U.A.E is spread across Europe, U.S.A, Russia, India, Pakistan and Middle East. Mulk holding’s flagship brand Alubond u.s.a Metal Composites has grown into The World’s largest Metal composite brand with operations in 11 countries and market reach of 90 countries.
Shaji's is an ardent cricket promoter and provides employment to professional cricketers for his champion ALUBOND TIGERS Cricket team. He is also actively involved in various Strategic Administrative levels of Emirates Cricket Board.
Philanthropy plays an important role in shaji's life and the company has dedicated CSR activity setting us many charity schools, clinics, libraries and orphan marriage programs.
08. PNC Menon
Founder
Sobha Group
Property
$1.7bn
Another real estate giant, PNC Menon is currently working on perhaps his biggest project yet — the Mohammed Bin Rashid City development in Dubai.
Almost three decades after his entrepreneurial journey began, and at the age of 65, the founder of the Sobha Group of companies said it is “the most exciting thing to have happened in my life”.
“It’s a dream project for me,” he said in the surroundings of his Dubai home in Emirates Hills. Menon started his entrepreneurial journey from very small beginnings. He set up an interior decoration firm in Oman in 1976. Today his organisation, the Sobha Group, is a multinational, multiproduct group with significant interests and investments in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Brunei, Tanzania and India.
