Bhadresh Shah, the 63-year-old founder and managing director of niche metallurgical company, AIA Engineering, cracks the billionaire ranks after shares of his listed company rose more than 100 percent in the past year.
The $300 million (FY14 revenues) Ahmadabad company makes and supplies high-chrome wear parts for grinding and crushing equipment in the cement, mining and thermal power industries.
Share prices soared on increased revenue and profitability. The company’s foray into the global mining sector over the last few years has been a plus. It now supplies grinding media and liners to gold and copper mining companies.
Nearly three-fourths of its revenues is from global sales – which happen in 95 countries around the world.
Shah – an IIT grad – hails from a family of doctors. He majored in metallurgy while at IIT and went on to start a foundry in 1978. What started as Ahmadabad Induction Alloys later became AIA Engineering. Shah owns more than 60 percent of the company giving him a net worth just over $one billion.
He was a regular on INDIA’S 100 RICHEST for many years but fell off in 2013 and 2014 even as his company worked to establish itself with global mining majors.
AIA has also made it to Forbes Asia’s Best Under a Billion list two times. The company – which has four plants in Ahmadabad, Nagpur, Bangalore and Trichy – is now looking to add more capacity over the next two years. The expansion includes a new plant near Ahmadabad.
AIA operates in a near-monopolistic market where it’s only serious contender is its one-time ally – Belgium’s Magotteaux.
AIA has an external chairman, Rajendra Shah—no relative.
Shah – who is a connoisseur of Italian cuisines and wines from the Tuscany region – is into also into golf, yoga and meditation.
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