The Hinduja family is planning investments of about $50 billion (Rs 2 lakh crore) in the next five years in India and abroad, led by a foray into oil and gas in Iran.
The closely held group, run by four billionaire brothers, is also planning large investments in real estate, automotives, power and infrastructure, mostly in India, Europe and West Asia.
Based in the UK, India and Switzerland, the Hinduja group does not disclose details of its financial performance. However, total sales are estimated at $11 billion in fields ranging from oil to banking, real estate, media and entertainment, telecom and healthcare.
The wealth of the two London-based brothers, Gopichand and Srichand, was estimated by the Sunday Times Rich List last month at £6.2 billion, making them the UK's fourth-richest family.
The scale of their investment plans is likely to be greeted with some scepticism in India, where they are not currently ranked among the biggest groups partly because they have only recently re-emerged into the public spotlight after winning a long-running court case related to a corruption scandal in late 1980s.
In India, the group controls Ashok Leyland, the country's second-biggest truck-maker by sales, as well as Hinduja Foundries, one of the biggest automotive jobbing foundries, producing castings for third parties.
The key to the group's strategy in India is to build on the family's historic ties with Iran, where it was based until the late 1970s. Hindujas are eyeing Iran's South Pars Phase 12 gas field and the Azadegan oil asset, in partnership with ONGC Videsh, the international unit of PSU Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
The group and ONGC Videsh have conducted due diligence on South Pars and are preparing for due diligence on Azadegan. "Both of them, depending on due diligence, will entail a huge investment in the range of $10-20 billion," the Hindujas have said.
Hinduja and ONGC are also planning to build a 300,000 barrels-a-day oil refinery and a 7.5 tonnes-a-year liquid natural gas terminal in southern India.
The group has received clearances to build 2,000 mw of generating capacity in Andhra Pradesh.In the coming decade, it plans to have a generating capacity of 10,000 mw at an investment of about $10 billion in the country.
