Dilip Shanghvi- A Business tycoon zealously guarding his privacy

April 23, 2015 12:53
Dilip Shanghvi- A Business tycoon zealously guarding his privacy

For many, Sun Pharmacy is a less known or not so well-known name until the Bloomberg Billionaires published the druggist as India’s No1 firm in the World on March 5 2015.

As per Bloomberg, Dilip Shanghvi, Sun Pharmacy Managing Director surpassed Mukesh Ambani and became the richest Indian with his net worth of $21.7 billion. By that day the Reliance chairman's fortune is $21.6 billion.

Sanghvi’s success story is an inspiration for many youngsters. He started his company with Rs 10,000 as an investment and the irony is ‘Sun’ remains in the dark for many years, except it bobs up once in a while with the acquisitions. But gradually, the number of acquisitions kept growing till the most recent being the $3.2-billion purchase last April of long-time Indian rival Ranbaxy Labs.

Shanghvi has of late been in the news for a string of nonpharma forays. He and his family have picked up stakes in telecom firm Uninor and wind power firm Suzlon, triggering talk whether his group was sowing seeds to becoming a conglomerate, a path followed by most Indian business groups.

But Shanghvi dismissed such suggestions and insisted that the forays into non-Pharma areas were "strictly personal financial investments".

"There are no plans of diversification on cards. These are strictly personal financial investments and for now we plan to stay focused on pharmaceuticals," he said.

For Shanghvi, acquisition of Ranbaxy is the Sun’s largest and most complex acquisition ever. Ranbaxy, once India's most high-profile drugmaker that was bought by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo in 2008 has been reeling under a series of regulatory troubles ever since.

When asked about what he planned to bring Ranbaxy back to the track, Shanghvi replied that instead of going with the superficial exercises, they analyzed the problem. “We have to understand what the deeper issues are and sort these out and help the talent perform their very best", quipped the turnaround artiste.

But coming to the personal life, despite his wealth, Dilip always maintain a relative obscurity.

He has no bodyguards and is rarely seen at parties.

He may have dislodged the title of India's richest man, but for the self-made billionaire, the label sits oddly - and even uncomfortably.

Speaking for the first time on the topic of being crowned as India's wealthiest man by Bloomberg Billionaires, Dilip Shanghvi, says far from being happy with the tag, he's not at all comfortable with the kind of attention and narrative it has triggered.

"I am not comfortable at all with this tag of being dubbed the richest Indian and all the attention that follows for the reason. The truth is that I like to focus on my work and do it right," Shanghvi told in an interview.

"Money is the outcome of my work and is incidental," added the 59-year-old self-made billionaire whose company is today India's biggest drugmaker and the world's fifth largest generics producer. Known for his unassuming, soft spoken demeanor and parsimony with words, Shanghvi, unlike other Mumbai-based tycoons who live in South Mumbai, lives in the suburb of Juhu. A fan of the Harry Potter series, he can be occasionally found in modest eateries serving South Indian food or catching a movie at a multiplex cinema near where he lives.

- Manohar

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