Shanghvi is the founder and largest shareholder of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, the world's fifth largest generic drugmaker. The Mumbai-based company serves more than 150 countries and has over 30,000 employees. He also has interests in Sun Pharma Advanced Research and BioLight Life Sciences.
Dilip Shanghvi's net worth of $7.70B can buy ...
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The majority of Shangvhi's wealth comes from his 54% equity interest in generic drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries. The shares are held by a promoter group, which includes holding companies, trusts and family members, according to a March 2019 filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Shares held by his family are credited to Shanghvi to reflect his status as founder and managing director. Sun Pharma is the world's fifth largest specialty generic pharmaceutical company, according to its 2018 annual report.
He also has 68% 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 19% of Suzlon Energy, a wind turbine maker, which he purchased for $289 million in February 2015.
Frederick Castro, a Sun Pharma spokeswoman, declined to comment on Shanghvi's net worth calculation.
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 U.S. 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.