Gopichand Parmanand Hinduja ( Sindhi: गोपीचंद परमानंद हिंदुजा) (born 29 January 1940) is an Indian-born British

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

businessman controlling the Indian conglomerate

Hinduja Group Hinduja Group is an Indian transnational conglomerate. The group is present in eleven sectors including automotive, oil and specialty chemicals, banking and finance, IT and ITeS, cyber security, healthcare, trading, infrastructure project d ...

. For many years he was co-chairman with his brother Srichand "S. P." Hinduja who died in May 2023. He and his brother were frequently named among the wealthiest people in the UK and Asia, and in the '' Sunday Times Rich List 2023'' ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK he was placed 1st with an estimated family fortune of £35billion.

Business career

The Hinduja brothers began their careers in their father's textile and trading businesses in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, India, and

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, Iran. Successful early businesses included the sale of food commodities (onions and potatoes) and iron ore from India to Iran. With the acquisition of Ashok Leyland (from British Leyland) and

Gulf Oil Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger ...

(from Chevron) in the 1980s and the establishment of banks in Switzerland and India in the 1990s, Hinduja Group became one of India's best known businesses alongside such names as Tata,

Birla Birla may refer to: * Birla family * Members of the Birla family: ** Aditya Vikram Birla ** Ananya Birla ** Basant Kumar Birla ** G. D. Birla ** K. K. Birla ** C. K. Birla ** Kumar Mangalam Birla See also

* Burla (disambiguation) {{surname Bir ...

, and

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. In 2012, the Group acquired the US firm Houghton International, the world's largest metal fluids manufacturer, for $1.045 billion, forming a consortium with the help of Ghouse Mohammed Asif, (Director of Private Equity of JP Morgan) and Hank Paulson, former United States Secretary of the Treasury and formerly of Goldman Sachs.

Wealth

As of August 2022, together with his late brother Srichand he is the UK's richest man. Since the 1990s, he has been consistently ranked among the UK and Asia's wealthiest people. In May 2017, Hinduja topped the ''Sunday Times'' Rich List with an estimated wealth of GBP 16.2 billion ($21 billion). Based on the rich list compiled by Asian Media & Marketing Group, Hinduja's wealth is estimated at GBP 19 billion ($24.7 billion). The ''Forbes'' List in March 2018 ranked he and his brother GP as the world's 55th richest billionaire family with an estimated wealth of $19.5 billion. In May 2019 The Hinduja brothers, Gopichand and Srichand, were once again named by the Time UK as the UK's wealthiest people, according to the annual Rich List survey.

Early life

Gopichand Parmanand Hinduja was born on 29 January 1940, the son of Parmanand Hinduja, and educated at

Jai Hind College Jai Hind College ( Marathi: जय हिंद कॉलेज) is an autonomous college in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, affiliated to the University of Mumbai. It was established in 1948. In 2000, ''India Today'' named Jai Hind College as o ...

, Bombay.

Personal life

He is married to Sunita Hinduja, and they have two sons and one daughter, Sanjay Hinduja, Dheeraj Hinduja and Rita Hinduja. The Hinduja family is of Sindhi heritage. In 2015, their son Sanjay Hinduja married his long-time girlfriend, the designer Anu Mahtani, in

Udaipur Udaipur () (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura''), historically named as Udayapura, is a city and municipal corporation in Udaipur district of the state of Rajasthan, India. It is the administrative headquarter of Udaipur district. It is the historic capit ...

, India. The wedding cost £15 million and entertainment included the pop singers

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and

Nicole Scherzinger Nicole Scherzinger (; born Nicole Prascovia Elikolani Valiente, June 29, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and television personality. She is best known as the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, one of the best-selling g ...

Citizenship

Gopichand obtained British citizenship in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinduja, Gopichand 1940 births British people of Indian descent British billionaires British businesspeople of Indian descent Gopichand Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom Living people British people of Sindhi descent 21st-century British businesspeople English people of Indian descent 21st-century Indian businesspeople