Sons rising in the West
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| Team leaders: Sanjay Hinduja (right) with Mahendra Singh Dhoni |
As chairman of Gulf Oil, Sanjay Hinduja is a little like Mahendra Singh Dhoni whom he has recruited to be the brand ambassador for his company — quiet, understated, cool but also capable of smashing his way to the business equivalent of a fast century.
In the latest ethnic survey of the richest Asians in the UK, the Hindujas have replaced Lakshmi Mittal at the top of the rankings with net wealth assessed at £12.5 billion in 2012, whereas the chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal slipped to £11 billion because of the decline in the steel market.
What is a matter of regret is the failure of the Asian rich to produce playboys. Instead, the sons, who are expanding empires their fathers established, all appear to be disappointingly well behaved.
Last year in one of the most sensational acquisitions of 2012, the Hindujas splashed out $1.1 billion in making a bid for Houghton International, an American lubricants giant, with Sanjay leading the moves on behalf of his family as chairman of the global Gulf Oil Corporation. Houghton’s “synergy” with Gulf Oil was the reason for the bid.
During six months of negotiations, Sanjay crossed the Atlantic to Houghton’s headquarters in Forge Valley, Philadelphia, several times and beat 20 rivals to win the game.
“Of course, you get satisfaction if you succeed,” laughs Sanjay. “The thrill, as in any sport, is when you do well you just feel top of the world.”
Sanjay is the son of Gopi, the second of the four Hinduja brothers. So why haven’t they fallen out as so many Indian families do where there is money?
“Because we have spent all our time with them (his parents’ generation) since childhood,” explains Sanjay. “We are seeing them in action and we are with them most of the time — in the office, at home. Since you are young, it’s instilled into you. Unity is our strength and we all recognise that. And if you believe in that, why would you harm it?”
Sanjay, now a “veteran” at 48, adds: “All members in the family always start working outside the family and then come inside. I had Credit Suisse First Boston and Chase Manhattan Bank and then came into the family. I must have been 23 or 24.”
He describes Dhoni as “very humble, very nice, down to earth, easy to speak to. As you know in India cricket is a religion.”
Sanjay’s passion is for motor racing, though. But here, too, Sanjay, who is known to have owned the odd Ferrari, mixes business with business.
“Gulf Oil is the sponsor for Aston Martin at Le Mans in the 24 endurance race,” he reminds me.
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Flame keepers
The Hindujas are one of many Indian families where the flame is passing from one generation to the next.
Srichand Parmanand (“SP”) Hinduja, 77, the head of the family, is based in London, with Gopi, while Prakash lives in Geneva, and the youngest, Ashok, in Mumbai.
Below them are SP’s daughters, Shanu and Vinoo; Gopi’s sons, Sanjay and Dheeraj; Prakash’s sons, Ajay and Ramkrishan (Remi); and Ashok’s film director daughter, Ambika.
Sanjay is chairman of Gulf; Dheeraj is chairman of Ashok Leyland; Remi looks after IT enabled services from New York; Ajay is on the board of the IndusInd Bank; Shanu is involved with the Hinduja Foundation; and Vinoo is busy with the state-of-the-art Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai.
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Meanwhile, at ArcelorMittal, Lakshmi Mittal’s son, Aditya, 37, is chief financial officer.
Over at Caparo, Lord Swraj Paul’s youngest son, Angad, 42, is chief executive of the entire group.
“My father built a business doing certain things to a point — I have been doing it for 10 years,” Angad tells me, while his father looks on proudly. “I was charged with it 10 years ago and I built the business to something different. My father gave me a responsibility and I have worked to that responsibility. We have got a company three times larger than the one I inherited which earns strong margins and which has expanded internationally.”
Caparo has 32 automotive plants in India (it was forced to move one from Singur to Gujarat).
Angad was a 13-year-old pupil at Harrow in 1982-83 when Lord Paul made a bid to buy shares in DCM and Escorts — and triggered a backlash from local captains of industry.
“The reason why I built it (Caparo) in India is actually because I was p....d off by the way my father was treated in the 1980s,” declares Angad.
Dad recalled
How thoughtful of physicist Tejinder Virdee, professor of physics at Imperial College, to remember his father at a ceremony in Geneva when he collected the $3m special Fundamental Physics Prize awarded to “seven scientists who led the effort to discover a Higgs-like particle at Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC)”.
“Tejinder is receiving the prize along with (Prof) Steven Hawking (of Cambridge) and a few others,” I learn from his wife Vatsala. “We had dinner with Steven and he is very nice and such a gentle person.”
In his speech, Tejinder said: “I would also like to thank my mother and remember my late father, who changed continents twice, from India to Kenya, and then to the UK when I was 15 years old, to afford me the education that enabled entry into fundamental science. Today, I am joined by my mother and the family, and my wife, Vatsala, who has provided the steady compass that has allowed me to steer through uncharted waters.”
Tejinder and Vatsala are on their way to Uganda to attend the BBC Science Festival in Kampala from March 24-28.
Labour love
Anish Kapoor has donated an untitled painting, showing his “iconic use of image and colour”, that will be auctioned by Labour leader Ed Miliband at an annual arts dinner that will emphasise the party’s close relationship with Britain’s artistic community.
I didn’t realise Anish was a Labour supporter. He probably spent a whole day on the painting. Sorry, that joke’s in poor taste — he couldn’t possibly afford to spend so long on the painting.
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Defining Diana
Ten evening outfits that helped define the late Princess Diana as an international style icon were sold by Kerry Tayor Auctions in London last week for $1.2 million (£8,00,000).
Though I was on the 1992 state visit to India by Charles and Diana, I cannot remember her wearing the Catherine Walker Mughal-inspired evening gown. That sold for £66,000.
Diana is gone but not forgotten. Her former lover, Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, now 53, has popped up to claim her “very discreet” phone messages to him were hacked into by journalists. Diana’s “Mr Wonderful”, who is demanding compensation, used to be smuggled into Kensington Palace at night in the boot of a car.
Tittle tattle
Proud Bangladeshi parents Mosharaf and Anwara Khan are thrilled their son, dancer Akram Khan, 38, had a successful tour of India, especially in Calcutta. Mosharaf rang to say he is even more thrilled that Akram and his Japanese dancer wife have just had a baby daughter, Sayuri Zubaida Khan.
“Sayuri means little lily,” says Akram’s mother.
