TALES OF MALAYALI MOGULSComing from a milieu where money-making was considered a sin, their small trader background was their only seed capital

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Yusuffali created a retail empire that originated in the UAE. He recalls those early days: “I landed in Dubai

in a ship named Dumra on December 31, 1973. I found Abu Dhabi a town without a steady supply of electricity or a proper sew-age system. Whenever temperatures rose – sometimes up to 52 degree Celsius, along with 84% humidity – we used to sleep on the roof.”

Pillai is a first-generation entrepreneur with roots in Chavara, near Kollam; his parents were farmers. Between NSH and 25 other companies he owns, they gen-erate revenues of Rs26,800 crore annually. Other than construction, Pillai has a strong presence in travel and tourism, healthcare and education, mainly in India and the Mid-dle East.

Often called 'Ambani of the Gulf', Pillai shot into limelight when he acquired Leela Resorts in Kovalam from the Mumbai-based family of C P Krishnan Nair, who was for decades one of the best-known faces of Ma-layali entrepreneurship. (For the last few years Capt Nair’s elder son Vivek has been working hard to reduce the group's large debt burden.)

P N C Menon is the third-richest Ma-layali in the world with a net worth of Rs13,000 crore. His holding company, the Dubai-headquartered PNC Investments, generated revenues of 1.2 billion dirham (Rs2,107 crore) during 2013, with net profits of 88.4 million Dhs (Rs150crore). Having lost his father when he was 10, Menon discon-tinued college to become an interior de-signer at Thrissur where his father once ran a small business. One day in 1976 his fortunes changed when he met Brig Gen Suleiman Al-Adawi from Oman in the lobby of a Kochi hotel. The general invited him to Muscat where the duo founded an interior design firm with a bank loan of 3,000 riyals. Talk of the right connection!

Small Towns, Big Dreams

Yusuffali’s companies generated reve-nues of Rs37,000 crore in 2014. He learnt

the tricks of the trade during his four-year stay in Ahmedabad, where his paternal uncle ran a general store. In 1973, he moved to Abu Dhabi where his father and uncle ran MK Stores, a kirana shop. “In 1983 came my first foreign trip. With 10 years of expe-rience in retailing, I went to Singapore , Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. Australia’s supermarkets impressed me the most. I decided to set up big supermarkets in Abu Dhabi instead of small grocery shops,” Yusuffali says.

Running In The Family

Their businesses couldn’t be more differ-ent but a common thread unites T S

Kalyanaraman, George Muthoot and Sunny Varkey – their families gave them a founda-tion on which to build their futures.

Varkey, who has a net worth of Rs11,200 crore, is fourth on the list. A second-gener-ation entrepreneur, Varkey came to Dubai in 1959 at the age of two along with his banker father. During their free time, his parents gave English lessons to workers; their efforts culminated in a formal school – Our Own English High School. When h is father retired in 1980, Varkey took over the reins of the organisation and started ex-panding, spurred by the belief that there was a huge potential for quality education not only in the Middle East, or on the sub-continent, but also in developed countries. His company Gems Education, headquar-tered in Dubai, operates a global network of schools and pre-schools in the Middle East, Africa, various parts of Asia, the UK and the US.

A third-generation businessman, Kaly-anaraman started helping his father right

from school, in the family’s textile business. In 1993, he ventured into gold jewellery re-tail, which pushed him into the list of bil-lionaires. As chairman and MD of the Thrissur-headquartered Kalyan Jewellers, Kalyanaraman is sixth in the list with an estimated net worth of Rs6,600 crore. His company generated revenues of Rs 7,400 crore in 2014. During that time, private eq-uity firm Warburg Pincus invested Rs 1,200 crore in the company for a minority stake. The company now has 77 stores in India, the UAE and Kuwait, and plans to open 16 more by March 2016. Says Kalya naraman, “I never expected to be rich like this. While I first started a jewellery showroom in 1993, I was using an Ambassador. Then, I used a Maruti 800. Now, between me and my two sons, we own three Rolls Royces". And then are his private jets (but more of that later).

M G George Muthoot, chairman of Mut-hoot Group, takes seventh position with a net worth of Rs5,550 crore. Between Muth-oot and his 12 family members, they own 29.8 crore shares of Muthoot Finance, the

largest gold loan company in the country. Muthoot is a third-generation businessman with origins in Kozhencherry, a small town south-east of Kochi, where his group is headquartered. A graduate in mechanical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology, he entered the business in the 1970s. The group has since spread into edu-cation, healthcare, IT, plantations, travel and tourism, and power generation. In Kerala, gold loans have become synony-mous with Muthoot Finance.

Class Act

Senapathy ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and one-time CEO of Infosys,

India’s second-largest software firm, is the fifth-richest Malayali. Along with wife Sudha and daughter Meghana, he holds more than 3.9 crore shares of the company, with an estimated market cap of Rs7,860 crore. A graduate in physics from the Uni-versity of Kerala, Gopalakrishan did his master's in computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology–Madras.

Like Gopalakrishnan, S D Shibulal, an-other co-founder of Infosys (and the last of the owner-CEOs), comes in ninth in the rich list with a net worth of Rs5,250 crore. He, too, is a product of the University of Kera-la, where he did his master's in physics. In Shibulal’s case, the street value of his 2.3 crore shares of Infosys and that of his wife and children have been added up to calcu-late his net worth, along with the value of his more than 700 apartments in the US.

Azad Moopen, chairman of the Dubai-headquartered Aster DM Healthcare LLC, is in the eighth position with a net worth of Rs5,500 crore. An MB B S gold medallist, he started his career as a lecturer at the Calicut Medical College in 1982 before ar-riving in Dubai five years later. Aster Group now operates close to 260 hospitals and pharmacies in the Middle East and India. Moopen also owns a medical college in Wayanad district of Kerala. Moopen told TOI, “Everybody in my family, including my father and brothers, have been in busi-ness. I was an exception; I went into aca-demics.” But clearly, business ran in his blood, too.

In tenth position is Arun Kumar, founder and group CEO of Strides Arcolab, a pharma company. With roots in Kollam district, he was brought up in Ooty, worked in Mumbai, and shifted the head-quarters of the company he founded 25 years ago to B engaluru. In 2013, his com-pany sold Agila Specialties, one of its divi-sions, to US pharma giant Mylan for $1.75 billion. According to industry sources, he has sold businesses worth $2.2 billion in the past three years. His per-sonal net worth is estimated at Rs4,800 crore. He still controls Strides Arcolab, along with Sequent Scientific and Alivira Animal Health. Agnus Capital, his

family's investment vehicle, has stakes in a number of high-value start-ups.

Sprawling Empires

The scale of operations of the Malayali barons from the Middle East is im-

mense. Some of them operate in almost all continents. It is estimated that nearly 7.1 lakh customers walk into Yusuffali’s Lulu hypermarkets daily, mainly in the Middle East. His company sources from 51 coun-tries and has set up procurement offices in 36 nations around the world. Likewise, Ravi Pillai also operates across a vast geography – from Africa to Australia, employing 90,000 people. “Within two months, we’ll have 1 lakh employees as we are recruiting 10,000 workers for our projects in Kuwait,” says Pillai.

Live Life King-Size

They may not be deliberately ostentatious but all these magnates live

luxuriously – and peripatetically. Yusuf-fali’s staff keeps 40 cars, including a fleet of Rolls Royces, BMWs and Mercedes-Ben-zes, and a private executive jet Embraer Legacy 650 waiting for him in Dubai or Ko-chi. And wherever needed, he rents helicop-ters locally for short trips. Apart from resi-dential homes in Abu Dhabi, London and Kochi, he owns commercial properties in London, Muscat, Doha, Mumbai and New Delhi. Kalyanaraman owns two jets, an Embraer Phenom 100 and an Embraer Legacy 650, as well as a Bell 427 helicopter, which allow him to hop between his stores.

They may not be deliberately ostentatious but all these magnates live luxuriously. Yusuffali’s staff

keeps 40 cars, including a fleet of Rolls Royces, BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes, and a private executive jet Embraer

Legacy 650 waiting for him in Dubai or Kochi. And wherever needed, he rents helicopters locally for short trips.

HI-FLYERS

For listed Indian companies, we used the direct valuation method, where the wealth was calculated using

‘street’or stock market value. In cases where multiple family members held significant number of shares of a company, we took the wealth of the family head combining the shares held by immediate relatives. MG George Muthoot, seventh on the list, is a case in point.

In some rare instances, where private companies revealed their numbers, we again employed a direct method of how the assets of these entrepreneurial companies exceeded the total liabilities. But for valuing promoter wealth of most private companies – where business numbers were not forthcoming – we used the comparable company analysis (CCA) methodology. We used price-to-earnings (PE) multiple or rule-of-thumb (a method of calculating wealth based on company revenues and inventory) in arriving at a fair value of the wealth these entrepreneurs made over decades.

Valuing Aster DM Healthcare of Dr Azad Moopen involved identifying peer

companies, London-listed Al-Noor and NMC Healthcare, looking at their current market value and PE multiples. Like Aster DM, both Al-Noor and NMC too have significant part of their businesses flowing in from the Middle East. Sunny Varkey’s education empire Gems Education and TS Kalyanaraman’s Kalyan Jewellers were

valued based on recent private equity interest in their respective businesses, which is used as a benchmark in valuing private enterprises globally. During the course of the valuation process, we trawled through annual reports, profit and loss accounts and draft prospectuses before reaching a final list of Malayali rainmakers.

The most notable exceptions are the Dubai-headquartered gold retailer Joy Alukkas and the Chennai-based KM Mammen of MRF Ltd, who richly deserved to be in the list. We did not have enough verifiable data like the shareholding pattern and revenues of holding company, Joyalukkas Jewellery, in the first case. And the Mammens were strong contenders for the Top 10 but fell below our cut-off despite being arguably the best-known business house out of Kerala.

HOW WE DID IT

THE TOP 10: WORLD’S RICHEST MALAYALIS THE TIMES OF INDIA, KOCHITHURSDAY, JUNE 4, 20152

THE RICH AND THE ROOTEDI was a contractor with public enterprises in Kerala before I came to the Middle East.

A strike at one of the undertakings forced me to look for opportunity elsewhere. Of the 500 people working with me,

I took 200 to Saudi Arabia. If the strike hadn't happened, I

wouldn't have made my fortune— Ravi Pillai

I never expected to be rich like this. While I first started

a jewellery showroom in 1993, I was using an Ambassador. Then, I used a Maruti 800. Now, between me and my two sons, we own three Rolls Royces

— T S Kalyanaraman

Everybody in my family, including my father and brothers,

have been in business. I was an exception; I went into academics

— Azad Moopen

Do you know that I don’t have to pay for fish back in my native village?

I have given jobs to the youth from all communities, some of whom are from fishermen’s families. So, when I’m around, their parents always make sure that I get fresh fish

— M A Yusuffali

RIYALESTATEHaving lost

his father when he was 10, PNC Menondiscontinued college to become an interior designer at Thrissur where his father once ran a small business. One day in 1976 his fortunes changed when he met Brig Gen Suleiman Al-Adawi from Oman in the lobby of a Kochi hotel. The general invited him to Muscat where the duo founded an interior design firm with a bank loan of 3,000 riyals. Talk of the right connection!

DIRTY PICTURET K Deepaprasad

MOUNTING MENACE: With World Environment Day just around the corner, the city is far from being greenand clean. The underside of Pullepady ROB is filled with garbage dumped by people who pass through the area. Motorists complain of the severe stench and the negligence of corporation authorities in removing it

Kochi: Even at a time whenKochi corporation claimsthat they have almost com-pleted pre-monsoon cleaningworks, opposition council-lors alleged the local bodywas making false claims andthe city would witness water-logging as heavy rains lashacross the city.

“Apart from the few drain-cleaning works carried outby Kochi Metro authoritiesand canal cleaning undertak-en at selected areas, the localbody has not done anythingsignificant,” said councillorM Anilkumar.

The opposition council-lors wanted the local bodyleadership to take a realitycheck. They said the mayorand team should get in touchwith city residents to under-

stand the situation.“ Concrete measures have

to be taken to ensure that wa-ter flows freely throughdrains and canals. Floodingand waterlogging would re-sult in outbreak of conta-gious diseases,” said council-lor V K Prakesh.

Speaking about plan fundutilization, they said thatcorporation claims to haveused 65% of plan funds dur-ing 2014-15. “This is not true.The 65% consists of spill overfunds from the previousyear,” added Anil.

“The corporation doesnot have sufficient funds orequipment to undertakelarge-scale dredging works.The councillors are aware ofthe ground reality and theyare making a political stunt,”said works standing commit-tee chairperson SouminiJain. TNN

Opposition trashescivic body’s claim

Kochi: The first thingthat 47-year-old Muruge-san did when he woke upfrom an 18-hour surgerywas to take a deepbreath.

After discovering abig tumour in his nose,he had stopped breath-ing for almost a year. Ithad also left him blind inone eye and with partialsight in the other.

Two years after hewas detected with chon-drosarcoma or cancer ofthe cartilage, the tu-mour was surgically re-moved.

“It started as a smallboil in the nostril but no-body was ready to oper-ate. We moved from hospital to hospital, but there was no solution. Doctors saidthat surgery could affectthe nerves, and that he may die on the oper-ation table,” said hiswife Sujatha Muruge-

san.A gardener, Muruge-

san stopped going out asthe tumour had becomeso huge that people start-ed looking at him withfear and disgust.

The tumour lookedlike a huge ball coveringhis face, disfiguring itcompletely.

“Every night, ourfamily went to bed think-ing that he may not wakeup the next day. He couldnot eat, watch TV, readpapers as the tumourhad become so huge,”said Sujatha.

“The operation to re-move the tumour tookabout 12 hours. The facewas also reset through aprocedure called cranio-facial resection. He willneed a few plastic sur-geries more to completethe reconstruction ofhis face. There is no needfor chemotherapy or ra-diation. Most doctorswho examined him nev-er took a second MRI tocheck the status of histumour which was nottouching any nerve,”said Dr Thomas Varugh-ese, surgical oncologistat Renai Medicity.

Murugesan said thatalmost 60% of his facehas been restored. “I feellike I am born again,” hesaid.

The specialists in theteam that operated onMurugesan includedneurosurgeon Dr P Sub-ramaniam, plastic sur-geon Dr Jose Tharayiland anesthesiologist DrSantosh Mohan.

A tumour that covered hisface and left him ‘breathless’

Kochi: The Kerala Coastal ZoneManagement Authority(KCZMA) has issued directionsto the National Centre for EarthSciences (CESS) to check Chera-nelloor panchayat’s claims inseeking exemption from coastalregulation zone (CRZ) norms.

“We will ask CESS to categor-ise us as a non-CRZ area as the sa-linity level of Chittoor puzha(the river separating the pan-chayat from Kochi corporation)is only 4.26 PPT (particles perthousand),” said panchayatmember J Paskal.

Salinity levels fall as one trav-els north from Kochi estuary to-wards Cheranelloor.

Panchayat officials said thatif the salinity level was less than5 PPT, then Cheranelloor wouldnot come under CRZ notifica-tion.

The panchayat had passed aresolution in March asking

KCZMA to test backwater salini-ty levels this summer to deter-mine whether the area falls un-der coastal regulation zone(CRZ) so as to give permission toconstruct dwelling units.

“The panchayat had raisedthe issue of PPT levels in sum-mer. The salinity levels are mea-sured in the peak summer. Thecommunication has come littlelate. But the authority can usethe existing coastal zone man-agement plan (CZMP) of the cor-poration as an indicator. As perthe CRZ notification, salinity upto 5 PPT will not attract the re-strictive provision,” said advo-cate Ebenser Chullikkat.

After checking salinity lev-els, CESS will make appropriatechanges to the draft coastal zonemanagement plan. This wouldpave way for the constructionand redevelopment of houses inthe panchayat.

There are over 100 applica-tions pending seeking permis-sion to construct and renovatehomes. “We hope that CESS willlook into the issue immediately,”Paskal added.

Cheranelloor seeksway out of CRZ

Kochi: In the wake of protests held in its prem-ises, authorities of Cochin International Air-port Ltd (Cial) on Wednesday said that personsinvolved in such activities may have to face con-tempt of court for violating a high court order.

In a release issued by Cial, authorities saidthat a 2013 order by Kerala high court had de-clared airport and its premises as protest-free

areas considering its nature as high securityzone.

“As per the court order on August 14, 2013,the airport and surrounding areas of 500mcome under high security zone. The order hadalso stated that no protests or dharnas shouldbe held within the high security zone causing difficulties for passen-gers, employees of airlines, airport staff, cargomovement and vehicles,” the release said.

Cial protesters may face contempt charges

Sudha.Nambudiri@timesgroup.com

CESS ROPED IN

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

After discovering a big tumour in his nose, 47-year-old Murugesanhad stopped breathingfor almost a year.It had also left himblind in one eye andwith partial sight in the other

CANAL CLEANING

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