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India Rich List: Biggest Gainers and Losers

We ranked the gainers and sliders in terms of percentage rather than absolute dollar gains in order to create a level playing field and reflect the biggest rank movements within the list

Published: Nov 5, 2012 06:52:04 AM IST
Updated: Nov 4, 2012 05:04:10 PM IST
India Rich List: Biggest Gainers and Losers
Image: Dinesh Krishnan
Habil Khorakiwala

Biggest Gainers 

Habil Khorakiwala

+ $1.17  bln (+185.71%)
(Moved  47 places in the ranking)

Habil Khorakiwala and his generic drugs company Wockhardt have led the surge of the Indian pharma sector in the past year. Thanks to the astounding success of his US business, which for the first time was the largest revenue generator across the organisation with a 41 percent (consolidated) share, he has seen Wockhardt’s stock in India more than treble to a record high of Rs 1,500. Following investments in R&D and crucial drug approvals, US revenues saw seven successive quarters of growth and grew 78 percent to $351 million.

Qimat Rai Gupta

+ $570 mln (+144.30%)
(Moved  34 places)

Aggressive advertising, expansion of distribution network and increase in product range ensured Qimat Rai Gupta’s Havells India a great year. The stock is up 91 percent to Rs 650 following the settling of a dispute with Osram Sylvania over jurisdictional ownership of the Sylvania brand, with Havells India set to receive $38 million. Plans to open 200 new Havells Galaxy stores by the end of this financial year to add to the current 169 have also been confirmed.

Benu Gopal Bangur
+ $850 mln (+100%)
(Moved  30 places)

All of India’s major cement manufacturers’ stocks benefitted from the diesel price hike, but Benu Gopal Bangur’s Shree Cement grew due to  more solid reasons. An improvement in EBITDA margins at 32 percent of the revenue was led by an increase in its capacity to 90 percent currently from 70 percent last year. The company was also boosted by its power division, which dispatched 6,171 lakh units this quarter, compared to just 1,600 lakh units last year—a 272 percent growth in capacity.

Ajay Kalsi
+ $910 mln (+65.47%)
(Moved  10 places)

Ajay Kalsi cashed in on good numbers from Indus Gas. Year on year, its revenues grew 209.13 percent from $2.19 million to $6.76 million, while a net loss of $2.42 million was replaced by a net profit of $1.36 million. The company is trading on the London Stock Exchange for £10, up from £6 a year ago. “The company has experienced significant success over the last year, with good production and successful drilling of production and appraisal wells,” said Chairman Marc Holtzman.

Shishir Bajaj
+ $310 mln (+62%)
(Moved  18 places)

Consumer goods maker Bajaj Corp has propelled Shishir Bajaj up the rich list. Trading at Rs 100 a year ago, strong growth from brands like Bajaj Almond Drop hair oil—which is up 27 percent from a year ago to Rs 136 crore in the July-September period—have seen the stock rise 80 percent to highs of Rs 188 this month. It was buoyed by a second quarter net profit increase of 34 percent year-on-year to Rs 38 crore, which sent shares up over 2 percent in a single afternoon’s trading.

India Rich List: Biggest Gainers and Losers
Image: Getty Images

Biggest Losers
Gautam Adani
– $4.3  bln  (-52.44%)

(Moved  9 places in the ranking)
It has been a tough year for Gautam Adani’s companies: Adani Power is down 37 percent, Adani Enterprises is down 54 percent and Adani Ports SEZ is down 20 percent from last year. Like APSEZ and APL, the overleveraged Adani Enterprises took a hit on the markets after its announcement that permission for a 1,840 hectare multi-product SEZ at Mundra would be withdrawn by the government. With debt that outstrips its market cap by almost three times, growth looks a tough ask at this stage.

Sunil Mittal
– $2.9  bln (-32.95%)
(Moved  6 places)

Bharti Airtel’s stock has fallen 29 percent over the last year, pulling Sunil Mittal’s net worth down with it. It hasn’t recovered after falling 7 percent in a day to a two-year low of Rs 274 in August, symptomatic of the seven successive quarters of decline. The company is also saddled with debt that has risen 23 fold in the last two years to $12 billion. Expansion into Africa has not been cheap and isn’t fetching Bharti any money. African operations accounted for losses of Rs 670 crore, twice of what they were last year.

Gautam Thapar
– $450  mln (-30%)
(Moved  25 places)

Just as it did in 2011, Gautam Thapar’s wealth has taken a sizeable hit. Crompton Greaves’ hasn’t recovered from last October’s debacle that resulted in angry shareholders demanding the company sell its Rs 270 crore private aircraft. It is trading 15 percent below its October 2011 level at the Rs 130 mark. Between 2005 and 2010, it acquired aggressively in Europe and is now feeling the squeeze from the Eurozone crisis. Ballarpur Industries’ stock fell 25 percent, from Rs 30 to Rs 22 year on year, sliding Thapar further down the list.

Jaiprakash Gaur
– $345  mln (-28.75%)
(Moved  25 places)

There was an apprehension of a change in political guard in UP affecting the Jaypee Group and Jaiprakash Associates, since most of the state and their business have high stakes together. They should have looked closer home for any trouble as Gaur’s son has been accused of insider trading by SEBI. This has affected the company stock in a marginal dip of 1.73 percent in the last one year, which brought down his value momentarily.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
– $250  mln (-28.57%)
(Moved  29 places)

The Pfizer-Biocon deal was the buzz of 2010 and pushed the stock price of Biocon at an all-time high of Rs 444. Now, after the split, the stock trades around Rs 266 and has reduced the value of its promoter considerably. She has to battle a branding issue, which followed soon after. This has also seen the stock fall 31.23 percent in the last year.

(This story appears in the 02 November, 2012 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)

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