Dilip Shanghvi (born 1 October 1955) is an Indian billionaire businessman and one of the country’s richest people. He founded Sun Pharmaceuticals. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2016. India Today magazine ranked him 8th in India’s most powerful people of 2017 list.
According to Forbes, as of October 2021, Shanghvi is the 14th richest person in India with a net worth of US$14.3 billion
The majority of Shangvhi’s wealth comes from a 54% stake in Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, a generic drugmaker. It has more than 40 manufacturing facilities and serves more than 100 countries, according to the company’s website.
The shares are held by a promoter group, which includes holding companies, trusts and family members, according to an April 2023 BSE filing. Shares held by his family are credited to Shanghvi to reflect his status as founder and managing director.
He also has about 66% of Sun Pharma Advanced Research, the research and development arm of the drugmaker. He controls shares in the companies directly and through promoter groups, which are all attributed to him to reflect his status as founder. Pledged shares have been excluded from the calculation of his net worth.
The billionaire also has a 12% of Suzlon Energy, a wind turbine maker, which he purchased for $289 million in 2015.
Frederick Castro, a Sun Pharma spokeswoman, declined to comment on Shanghvi’s net worth calculation.
Biography
Education: University of Calcutta
Born in 1955, Dilip Shanghvi was raised in Kolkata, where his father ran a pharmaceutical trading company selling branded and generic drugs. He earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Calcutta in 1982. Upon graduating, Shanghvi started Mumbai-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries as a two-man operation selling a single drug, Lithosun, which is used to treat bipolar disease. His then-partner, Pradeep Ghosh, still works for Sun Pharma.
Shanghvi established the Pharma Advanced Research Center to speed the development of generic drugs in 1993. The next year, Sun Pharma sold shares on the Bombay and National Stock Exchange. The offering was oversubscribed 55 times.
Shanghvi then expanded into the US generic drug industry, acquiring Detroit-based Caraco Pharmaceuticals in 1997. Caraco gave him access to the world’s largest market for generic drugs, its distributors, and expertise in dealing with the Food and Drug Administration. In all, Shanghvi has bought 13 drugmakers since 1997, following a strategy of acquiring under-performing or unprofitable companies and merging their operations into Sun Pharma.
An unsuccessful six-year takeover battle for Taro Pharmaceutical started in 2007 when Shangvhi made a $454 million bid to acquire the Yakum, Israel-based drugmaker. Over the years, Sun Pharma eventually acquired a 61 percent stake in Taro after grappling with the company’s founders for control, and offered to buy the rest for $367 million in October 2011. Sun withdrew the offer in February 2013 after shareholders held out for a higher price.
In May 2012, Shanghvi relinquished his position as chairman of Sun Pharma to his handpicked successor, Israel Makov, the former chief executive officer of Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world’s largest generic drug maker. The billionaire took up the role of managing director of the company instead.
Sun Pharma then acquired domestic competitor Ranbaxy Laboratories in what was its biggest ever purchase and the largest in the pharmaceutical industry in Asia in 2014. The deal, which closed in March 2015, boosted the company’s stock and made Shanghvi the world’s richest pharmaceutical tycoon.
Community
In January 2018, the Indian government appointed Shanghvi to the Reserve Bank of India‘s 21-member central board committee. He is chairman of the board of governors at IIT Bombay. He was made a trustee of the Rhodes scholarship programme at Oxford University in 2017
Personal life
He is married to Vibha Shanghvi. They have a son, Aalok and a daughter, Vidhi, both of whom work for Sun Pharmaceuticals
Milestones
- 1955 Dilip Shantilal Shanghvi is born in Gujarat, India.
- 1983 Creates Sun Pharmaceutical Industries in Kolkata.
- 1989 Sun Pharma begins to sell products in India
- 1994 Sun Pharma sells shares in an initial public offering.
- 2007 Starts takeover battle for Taro Pharmaceutical.
- 2010 Gains majority shareholding in Taro Pharmaceutical.
- 2012 Names Israel Makov chairman of Sun Pharma.
- 2014 Sun Pharma agrees to buy Ranbaxy for $3.2 billion in stock.
- 2015 Overtakes Mukesh Ambani as India’s richest person.
- 2016 Agrees to purchase 14 prescription brands from Novartis in Japan.
Book
In 2019, journalist Soma Das authored The Reluctant Billionaire, the first and only biography of Dilip Shanghvi. Published by Penguin Random House, the book was nominated for Tata Literature Award in the Best Business Book category in November 2019
