SHANGHVI GIVES SUN AN M&A DOSE OF GROWTH

Pharma billionaire sees 63% rise in net worth as acquisitions pay off.

- GINA KRISHNAN

THE ‘RELUCTANT BILLIONAIRE’ is an apt title for the immensely private founder and CMD of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Dilip Shantilal Shanghvi. From founding Sun Pharma in 1983 to it becoming the first Indian pharma company to clock $5 billion in valuation, Shanghvi has grown Sun through a series of acquisitions, the biggest of them being the purchase of rival Ranbaxy Laboratories for $4 billion.

Sun Pharma is the fourth-largest specialty generic pharmaceutical company in the world with global revenues of $5.4 billion, 43 manufacturing facilities and 41,000 employees.

The son of a wholesale drug distributor, Shanghvi launched Sun Pharma soon after graduating (1982) from the University of Calcutta with a bachelor’s degree in commerce. He started by helping his father in his business — wholesale dealership of medicines, mainly generic drugs — in Kolkata, and soon launched his first manufacturing unit at Vapi in Gujarat with ₹10,000 borrowed from his father. The unit, which began with the production of just one psychiatry drug, today manufactures products sold in over 100 countries.