Asian Rich List estry” by 60,000 London children telling the tale of the river. The cash and carry sector, although charac- terised by very low margins generally, have al- so proved resilient, as shown by the examples of Sir Anwar Pervez and his family members at Bestway, and by Pradip and Manish Dha- mecha at Dhamecha. Another noticeable trend is that of entre- preneurs who are selling out and doing so at the top of the market. Last year, brothers Vijay and Bhikhu Patel, of UK-based Waymade Healthcare, sold one of their two firms, Am- dipharm, for £367m to private equity busi- ness Cinven. The latter’s aim is to create a much larger producer of generic drugs worth as much as £2bn. A few months later, Cinven also bought Mercury Pharma from HgCapital for £465m. Mercury Pharma, a specialist in off-patent medicines, was previously known as Gold- shield Group. It was bought by Hg Capital for £179m in 2009. As part of the latest deal, HgCapital re- vealed that a trio of former Goldshield direc- tors – brothers Kirti, Ajay and Rakesh Patel – were selling their minority stakes. Kirti Patel set up Goldshield in 1989 with a fellow Lon- don pharmacist, Ajit Patel. They resigned from management in 2007 when the company settled a dispute with the Department of Health. But Kirti, Ajay and Rakesh Patel continued to hold shares and have reaped the rewards of a growth spurt under HgCapital. One of the biggest business stories last year was the sale by Sukhbal Singh Ahluwalia of his car parts company, Euro Car Parts, to US giants LKQ Corporation for £225m. The Jatania brothers – George, Vin, Danny and Mike – built Lornamead into a formida- ble company dealing with personal care products that included such heritage brands as Vosene and Yardley. They sold the distribution arm of Lor- namead this year to a Hong Kong global firm, Li & Fung, for a reported $190m (£126m). The family also sold the brand rights to the same company in a separate transaction for an un- disclosed sum. Those who have sold their family firms are expected to invest in a variety of others busi- nesses that offer the best returns. Some may set up their own private equity arms. This may be a route favoured by the Jatanias, for example. There is also the desire among most to undertake more philanthropic work through family foundations. In Manchester, the three Arora broth- ers, Simon and Bobby and Robin, have sold a “significant stake”, possibly 60 per cent, in their discount chain, B & M Bar- gains, to US private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice, in a deal understood to be worth £965m. B&M Bargains, which has 315 stores and a turnover of over £1bn, was acquired by the Aroras in 2004 when it had just 21 stores. Sir Terry Leahy has been appointed an adviser to CD&R and his role as chairman is his first significant management position since stepping down as chief execu- tive of Tesco in 2011. As you might expect, some have dropped off the list because their estimated wealth no longer qualifies them and even among this number, some have fallen simply because others have emerged, largely because of new circumstances. Among these is Ramesh Sitiija, who has ac- quired a home in Mayfair, London, and has extensive interests in Africa, principally in Ni- gerian mining and is valued at £390m. “London is a hub of global business activity and the added attraction was a stable envi- ronment and a good family life,” he said. Perhaps the most impor- tant arrival in London since Lakshmi Mittal’s in late 1995 is that of his brother-in-law, Sri Prakash Lohia, whose company, Indorama, is the biggest polyester manufacturer in the world. He settled in London very recently, and news of his residence came too late for him to be included in the list. Nevertheless he spoke to Asian Rich List about his move. Asked “Why did you make the move to London?”, Lohia replied: “Sixty per cent of my business is in the west. Also, it’s easier to trav- el from here than from Asia.” Lohia, 60, who is married to Mittal’s young- er sister Seema, can often be found at dawn in St James’s Park going for a walk with the other “SP” – Srichand Parmanand Hinduja. Lohia’s publicly listed company, Indorama Ventures Public Company Ltd, assessed con- servatively, is worth $3.4bn (£2.25bn) and he would rank comfortably in fourth position. Indorama makes the resin which is turned into “plas- tic” bottles that are used to sell everything from mineral water to Pepsi and Coca Cola. “Our res- ins make 200m bottles a day,” he pointed out. “One in every three bottles is made from our resins.” “We are in 24 coun- tries,” said Lohia, who has a home in Singapore but intends spend- ing more time in ‘London is a hub of global business activity’ Amit Lohia 08 | Eastern Eye Asian Rich List | March 2013 London, because, like Mittal, he finds it ideal as the headquarters for a global operation. “In Europe we have got six plants – in Lithuania, Holland, Italy, Poland, Germany and Ireland. And in America we have got four-five plants in different states. We are in Mexico. In the UK we have one plant in Work- ington (in Cumbria). Globally we employ 22,000 people.” His turnover is now around $10bn (£6.6bn). Last year profits increased by 17 per cent be- cause recession or no recession, “people still have to drink”. Lohia emphasised that “we take ecology very seriously. Because we are the largest pro- ducers, we have to. We are the largest recy- clers in the world also. We have recycling plants in Europe, US, and also Indonesia. That has become very important.” Like Mittal, Lohia was born and educated in Calcutta, and later in Delhi. It was his fa- ther, ML Lohia, who made the move to Indo- nesia and set up his first plant there in 1976. Mittal was also in Indonesia before shifting to London. Lohia explains the genesis of the company name, “Indorama” – “Indo is for In- donesia and Rama is after the God Rama”. Lohia’s younger, Bangkok-based brother, Aloke, is also involved in the public listed company on a 50-50 basis but Lohia also has a separate private firm with oil and petro- chemical interests in Nigeria, Indonesia, Turkey, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan – “they are separate (from the listed company), they are personal”. Lohia, who remains vegetarian, describes himself as a “God-fearing Hindu”, which again explains why so many Indian businesses have a core that can be seen as traditional. He works closely with his Singapore-based son, Amit, 38, who was educated (like Mittal’s son, Aditya, and daughter-in-law, Megha), at Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business (where the acceptance rate is just nine per cent of applications). Asked about the values he has bequeathed to his son, Lohia said: “He is more on computers, fig- ures, numbers, has differ- ent ideas. He has learnt mostly on the job. He can see the tradition, how we run the business. He has to just follow the same.” He makes it clear that re- search and development is very important to Indorama. “We in- vest in high technology.” Ultimately, Lohia pointed out, “our aim is to motivate our people. Our busi- ness is based on honesty, hard work and customer satisfaction. And manpower – how to employ good people. Keep people motivated.” These are deep seat- ed values which nearly all on the 2013 Rich List would heartily endorse.