2015 Forbes India Rich List: Grand debuts

Rakesh Gangwal
$1.6 bln
Rich List rank: 70
It is hard to avoid the public gaze when you are in the aviation business, but Rakesh Gangwal, co-founder of India’s biggest (by market share) and most profitable airline IndiGo, has managed to do it for all these years. The US-based billionaire, who was the former president and CEO of US Airways, holds approximately 45 percent stake in InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of IndiGo.

In September, IndiGo received Sebi approval for its Rs 2,500 crore initial public offering (IPO), the largest in India’s civil aviation industry. According to a July article in Forbes, the IPO values IndiGo at over $3 billion. Rahul Bhatia, the other co-founder, holds about 55 percent stake in the domestic carrier.

Launched in 2006, IndiGo has been the only flagbearer of profitable growth in India’s aviation industry, which has seen the death of many brands such as Kingfisher Airlines and Paramount Airways. For the financial year ended March 2015, IndiGo posted a net profit of Rs 1,304 crore, reporting a four-fold increase over its previous year’s numbers. At present, IndiGo operates a fleet of 97 planes with 648 daily flights connecting 38 destinations.

Mannalal Agrawal
$1.35 bln
Rich list rank: 84
Mannalal Agrawal, chairman of pharmaceutical company Ajanta Pharma, enters the list after his company’s shares more than doubled at the BSE in the past year. The company posted a 40.5 percent jump in net profit at Rs 83.84 crore in the quarter ending June 2015, against Rs 59.66 crore for the corresponding period a year earlier. Mannalal and his two brothers, Purushottam and Madhusudan, started the Mumbai-based company in 1973. Agrawal’s US-educated sons Yogesh and Rajesh are running operations now. The company sells generic drugs in 35 countries, including Iraq, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Philippines. It has also recently received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for Montelukast, generic tablets and oral granules used to treat asthma. Ajanta Pharma moved away from its traditional over-the-counter drug sales business model and now focuses on the specialty generic drug market.

Salil Singhal
$1.25 bln
Rich List rank: 90
Salil Singhal has, over three decades, expanded PI Industries from its core business of pesticides and this has helped the company outperform its peers. Its stock price saw a 38 percent increase at the BSE, fuelled by improved performance and earnings growth in the past year. This has largely been due to its recent expansions/diversification. Besides making agri-products such as plant production products and plant nutrients, PI Industries has moved into manufacturing ingredients that go into the making of formulations for the pharmaceutical sector. Singhal has spoken about plans to venture into other streams such as textiles, too. Singhal, who had taken charge of the family business (founded by his father Pramod Singhal, as Mewar Oil & General Mills in 1946) in 1979, has now handed over the reins to his son Mayank, who has been the MD and CEO since 2009.

Chirayu Amin
$1.22 bln
Rich list rank: 93
Chirayu Amin, 68, chairman and managing director of Alembic Pharmaceuticals, debuts on the back of a 60 percent rise in the shares of his company over the past year at the BSE. It posted a steady growth in the first quarter of 2015, with an 8 percent rise in net profit at Rs 69.88 crore; sales rose by 18 percent at Rs 582.4 crore, against the corresponding period last year. Alembic Pharma controls a 5 percent share in the cough and cold category and manufactures the well-known cough syrup, Glycodin. The company has got a boost after the US FDA allowed it to market the first generic versions of Abilify (aripiprazole) earlier this year.

Started by Amin’s grandfather, Alembic Pharma was established in 1907 and began as a tincture and alcohol maker. In 2010-11, it demerged its pharmaceuticals vertical into a separate business. A sports enthusiast, Amin is a cricket administrator who has served as chairman of the popular but controversial Indian Premier League (IPL)

Sunder Genomal
$1.2 bln
Rich list rank: 95
Sunder Genomal, managing director of Bengaluru-based premium innerwear manufacturer Page Industries, makes it to the list after the shares of his company jumped 71 percent in the past one year. At Rs 63.18 crore, Page’s profits have gone up by 16 percent for the quarter ended June 2015.

Genomal founded the company in 1994 and is the youngest of three brothers. The trio owns 51 percent stake in Page Industries and are exclusive licensees for Jockey underwear and casual wear in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the UAE. They have also owned the Philippines franchise of Jockey for three generations. Brand recall, wide distribution network and growth of the discerning customer have buoyed the performance of the company.

Page Industries retains the licence to manufacture Speedo swimwear in India which is sold in over 986 stores and eight exclusive brand outlets across 74 cities. The Karnataka State High-Level Clearance Committee recently cleared the company’s proposal to invest Rs 132 crore in a manufacturing unit in Hassan district.

THE OTHERS
Sunil Vaswani
Rank: 48 ($2 bln)
Leena Tewari
Rank 54 ($1.9 bln)
Vinod Gupta
Rank 74 ($1.56 bln)
Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal
Rank 86 ($1.3 bln each)
Achal Bakeri
Rank 89 ($1.26 bln)
Raghuvinder Kataria
Rank 100 ($1.1 bln)