Asian Rich List guru... When he went to pick his business case up from the carousel, it was nowhere. “The bag was stolen – all my business plans were gone.” Perhaps it was serendipity – there was only one course of action left open to him. “Monaghan did this rousing speech to abo- ut 2,000 people, and (when he left the stage) something drove me. I just went through the crowd and I told him: ‘I have been trying to meet you but people won’t let me. I want the (Domino’s franchise) rights to the UK’. “There was lot of press and other people around, I still remember it he could not but help talk to me.” Monaghan liked Verjee’s pas- sion and backed the young entrepreneurs’ hunger and drive. Verjee was just 28, had nev- er run a business before, but Monaghan be- lieved he could. He started Domino’s in Luton with the backing of two US partners and some old business contacts in investment banking. Domino’s quickly mushroomed, and by the time they had 50 outlets in 1989, Verjee sold up. He had never intended in the long-term to run a pizza franchise. “I made a lot of money out of it and that was my dream, when it hit that number.” He maintains that alongside his retail business was a property one, and he started to invest in properties with a view to redeveloping them. His earliest success came with the old Brompton Hospital and he still holds a for- midable property portfolio that has extended to Brazil. Verjee is increasingly devoting more of his time to charitable activities; his own foundation promotes democracy in developing countries, and he has always been close to the Liberal Democrats, donating £770,000. He also helped to set up the party’s leadership pro- gramme, which encouraging a wider diversity of candi- dates to fight the next elec- tion. He is also an ambas- sador for the Mosaic charity which encour- ages high-fliers to mentor youngsters from deprived communities. Verjee’s exten- sive property portfolio and other busi- ness inter- ests have seen sig- nificant appreci- ation over the year. We value him at £160m. 33= Navin Engineer Pharmaceuticals £160m p£10m WITH a burning desire to work for himself, Navin Engineer set up his own pharmacy Chemidex in Chertsey, Surrey, in 1981 on the site of a former grocery store. He opened long hours, including Sundays, on the principle that “your body doesn’t de- cide to be ill when the shops are open”. He founded Chemidex with his wife Varsha, whom he says was a “rock”. “None of this would have been possible without her,” he said. “She gave 100 per cent support in running the shops and the pharma- cies.” By 1999, he had 14 pharmacies, and Yakub Patel 3535 Yakub & Anwer Patel Pharmacy retailing £155m p£30m THE COHENS pharmacy chain still remains at the top of its game even after 111 of its branches were sold to Lloyds Pharmacy. The company established itself over 33 years ago and is now one of Britain’s leading pharmacy chains with over 150 branches throughout the UK. Anwer, a pharmacist by profession, and his brother Yakub, an accountant, set up their first chemists shop in Rochdale in 1980 and subsequently took over Bolton-based Cohens from where they built a chain of chemists. In October 2005, the brothers sold 111 of their pharmacies to Lloyds for £130 million. They kept 30 trading under the Scholes and their value had increased after the government acted to prevent a free-for-all in the market by restricting the grant of new pharmacy licences. Having sold its pharmacies, Chemidex is now a wholesaler of both branded and gener- ic medicines. The company eventually estab- lished itself as a pharmaceutical company by the acquisition of its first brand in 2000. Since then, further acquisitions of ethical brands for UK and Ireland markets from vari- ous global pharmaceutical companies such as Elan, GSK and Solvay, as well as in-house de- velopments of branded pharmaceuticals, has made Chemidex Pharma into a significant player in the market. Much of Navin Engineer’s wealth is held off shore, but his UK company saw an increase in its EBITDA to £8.4 million, so we increase his value somewhat conservatively to £160m. Anwer Patel Cohen names and still remain one of the big- gest independent companies. The brothers are African-born and came to Bolton as children. They showed their philan- thropic side and their love of community when they helped fund the £20m transformation of Bolton’s Hayward School into an academy. The company registered as Gorgemead and acquired Assura Pharmacy for £39.3m in 2011 in a deal which saw 41 pharmacy stores trans- fer out of the Warrington-based company. In addition to the Assura deal, Gorgemead acquired Yorkshire Street Pharmacy, MWH Healthcare and GSH Mossgate during the pe- riod, which expanded its portfolio significant- ly by the end of the year. Turnover at the brothers’ holding company rose to £120m for the year ending August 2011, producing an EBITDA of £11.3m. We add con- siderable private wealth from previous sales to give Yakub and Anwer Patel a value of £155m. March 2013 | Eastern Eye Asian Rich List | 51