Forbes India — November 17, 2017

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Nusli Wadia

$5.6 billion

Rich List rank: 25

Nusli Wadia, 73, chairman of the Wadia

Group, is the richest newcomer in the 2017

Forbes India Rich List. His Mumbai-based

empire includes consumer goods maker

Britannia Industries, home textiles company

Bombay Dyeing and budget airline GoAir.

Earlier this year, the 137-year-old, loss-

making Bombay Dyeing announced plans

to rev up its business by investing around

`100 crore in the brand, expanding its store

network and growing its product portfolio

by tying up with international designers.

Share prices surged on the expectation that

these measures would help the company

more than treble its revenues to `1,

crore by FY20 from `305 crore in FY16.

aNuraNg JaiN

$1.91 billion

Rich List rank: 79

Two-wheeler tycoon Rahul Bajaj’s nephew

Anurang Jain, 55, started Endurance

Technologies in 1985 to supply aluminium

die castings to his uncle’s Bajaj Auto. Today,

the company derives 40 percent of its

revenue from aluminium castings but also

manufactures suspensions, transmissions and

brakes for two- and three-wheelers. It counts

Mahindra & Mahindra, Eicher Motors and

Harley Davidson among its customers apart

from Bajaj Auto. The company debuted on

NSE in October 2016, listing at a 21 percent

premium to its issue price. Jain retains an 83

percent stake in the company, which gets

30 percent of its revenue from Europe.

diNesh NaNdWaNa

$1.72 billion

Rich List rank: 88

Fifty-four-year-old Dinesh Nandwana’s

Vakrangee Ltd is a technology-driven

company engaged in providing e-governance

related services. It leverages its vast network

of last-mile retail points of sale to deliver

real-time banking, financial services and

insurance services, government-to-citizen

services and business-to-consumer services

to the rural, semi-urban and urban markets.

This franchisee-based network of 35,

Vakrangee Kendras—as the access points

are called—are spread across 16 states

in India. In July 2015, Vakrangee entered

into a five-year exclusive tie-up with

Amazon wherein the ecommerce giant

would use Vakrangee Kendras as ordering

and collection points for customers. In

the last fiscal, Vakrangee entered into

partnerships with Bajaj Allianz, Aditya

Birla Health Insurance and FedEx Express,

among others. In FY17, Vakrangee posted

profit after tax of `530 crore, up 34.

percent year-on-year. Its shares surged

59 percent during the course of the year.

arviNd Poddar

$1.48 billion

Rich List rank: 98

Arvind Poddar, 59, is CMD at tyre-

making firm Balkrishna Industries, the

flagship company of the Siyaram Group,

which is also the holding company for

Balkrishna Paper Mills, Balkrishna Tyres

and Balkrishna Synthetic. In 1995, under

Poddar’s leadership, the company entered

the off-highway segment—tyres that are

By Varsha Meghani

new on the List

six tycoons mAde their debut

in the billionAires club this yeAr

used in vehicles meant for agricultural,

industrial, construction and earth-moving

applications. Today, Balkrishna Industries

is one of the leading manufacturers in the

segment with a global market share of

about 4 percent. The company’s stock,

which has zoomed over 600 percent in

the last five years, has been on the rise

since the company reported a year-on-

year doubling of profit in the September

quarter of FY17. Poddar’s son Rajiv serves

as joint MD of Balkrishna Industries.

viJay shekhar sharma

$1.47 billion

Rich List rank: 99

Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Paytm has captured

not just the top spot among Indian mobile

wallets, but also significant mindshare.

In May 2017, after Softbank’s $1.4 billion

investment in One97 Communications—

Paytm’s parent company—the Japanese

conglomerate became the lead investor

in the company. Softbank’s investment

came ahead of the launch of the Paytm

Payments Bank. With Softbank’s funds,

Sharma, 39, hopes to acquire 500 million

new customers and launch a slew of financial

services including wealth management and

insurance. Paytm—which assumed new-

significance after Prime Minister Narendra

Modi’s demonetisation move in November

last year—has 250 million registered users

and notches 7 million transactions daily.

raNa kaPoor

$1.46 billion

Rich List rank: 100

Rana Kapoor, 60, co-founded Yes Bank—

today, India’s fifth-largest lender—with his

brother-in-law Ashok Kapur and Harkirat

Singh in 2003. The trio put in seed capital

of $10 million each, which they got from

selling stakes in Rabo India Finance. Kapoor

is the only founder to remain at the helm—

Singh left early on over a dispute and Kapur

was killed in the Mumbai terror attack in

2008. Yes Bank’s net profit and net interest
      income rose 31 percent and 27 percent
      respectively year-on-year in FY17, and the
      stock price too more than doubled in the
      course of the year on the back of a reported
      low bad-loan ratio and robust return on
      equity. However, in May 2017, Yes Bank’s
      stock took a hit after an RBI assessment
      revealed that the bank’s non-performing
      assets for FY16 stood at 4,926 crore, more than six times the reported749 crore.

nusli Wadia

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18 | forbes india december 29, 2017