68 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2018
gal Nevatia in a Macquarie Research
report in June. “With no substitute,
growing demand and limited new sup-
ply, graphite electrodes is now more a
‘strategic resource’ than a ‘commodity.’ ”
he China turn came when theOver the next ive years, demand for
graphite electrodes is expected to out-
strip supply, keeping prices high. (Ca-
pacity is expected to grow 8% annually,
but demand should grow 1 2%.) “We see
this uplit as structural,” noted Suman-
graphite electrode industry was recov-
ering from a spell of weak demand.
From 2011 to 201 6, China was pump-
ing steel—made in blast furnaces—into
global markets and had racked up a
5 0% market share. his caused demandIndia’s 100 Richest
MOVING OUT
AFFLUENT ABROAD
Debuting billionaire Krishna Kumar Bangur, a Singapore
permanent resident since 2012, is part of a growing tribe
of Indian tycoons opting for a foothold overseas while
retaining business ties to India. “This is a subject we get
consulted about every so often for a variety of reasons,”
says Dinesh Kanabar, CEO of Mumbai tax and regulatory
firm Dhruva Advisors. “People want to diversify their
assets or their businesses overseas or are seeking more
tax-friendly options.”
With its low corporate tax rates of 17% (compared with
India’s 25% to 30%) and exemptions on income earned over-
seas, Singapore is among the more popular havens.
Shyam Bhartia (No. 75), founder and chairman of Jubilant
Bhartia Group, a conglomerate with interests in pharma,
food and auto, has been living in Singapore on an employ-
ment pass since 2015. (Younger sibling Hari remains in New
Delhi). The 65-year-old tycoon who runs Jubilant Pharma, a
pharma unit of his listed life-sciences arm, launched a
$300 million bond oering in 2016. Now he’s seeking a Sin-
gapore listing. An earlier example was drug magnate
Malvinder Singh, whose wealth has since been squeezed
amid a series of legal disputes.
While these migrants have kept Indian citizenship, some
have given it up. Property developer Surendra Hiranandani,
who has roots in Mumbai real estate and last featured in the
top 100 in 2014, has become a citizen of tax-friendly Cyprus.
His son Harsh remains stationed in India, while his daughter
Neha has moved to London.
Hiranandani’s nephew Darshan has opted to live in Dubai
for the past 14 years, though he spends about a week every
month in India. He’s the CEO of H-Energy, which builds
natural-gas terminals and pipelines in western and eastern
India. (His father, Niranjan Hiranandani, is also a former
lister.) To maintain his status as a nonresident for personal
tax purposes, Darshan has to ensure that his total stay in
India doesn’t exceed 183 days a year. “I have a spreadsheet
that I’m constantly updating,” he laughs.
India’s reputation as a diicult place to do business is
one reason why some tycoons opt for such a peripatetic
existence. While the country moved up several notches in
the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking in 2018,
to 100 from 130 a year earlier, rules for starting a business,
for example, or even to register property, remain complex.
(Singapore ranks No. 2 on the list; Cyprus is No. 53.)
A handful on our rich list are foreign citizens for var-
ied reasons: Construction magnate Pallonji Mistry (No. 5),
whose wife, Patsy, is an Irish citizen, opted for that country’s
nationality in 2003; and Sunder Genomal (No. 60), who runs
the Jockey franchise in India, is a citizen of the Philippines,
where his family has decades-old business ties and where he
was born and raised.
— Naazneen Karmali & Anuradha RaghunathanSurendra Hiranandani, chairman, House of Hiranandani.