Ajay Piramal

Ajay Piramal is an Indian businessman. In 2010, Forbes estimated his net worth to be US $1.0 Billion making him one of India’s Top 50 richest people. He leads the Piramal Group, a diversified conglomerate with a presence across 100 countries. Under his leadership the Piramal Group evolved from a textile centric business to a USD 2 billion conglomerate with diversified business interests across pharmaceuticals, packaging, financial services and real estate.

In 1988, he bought Nicholas Laboratories, an Australian multinational corporation. The company is now ranked in one of top 10 pharma companies, having made a string of overseas acquisitions like the Indian subsidiaries of Roche, Boehringer Mannheim, Rhone Poulenc, ICI and Hoechst Research Centre. India`s first major shopping mall, Crossroads was developed from three redundant Piramal factory buildings in Mumbai.

Ajay Piramal led Piramal Enterprises Ltd agreed to buy a 5.5% stake in Vodafone India for Rs. 30.07 billion ($618 million), taking the total stake of the cash-rich drug manufacturer in the mobile telecom firm to 11%.