An Indian Farmer’s Son Is Now Worth More Than $300 Million After His Health Care Firm’s IPO

Monday, May 16, 2016

By his own admission, Arokiaswamy Velumani was born at the bottom of the pyramid.

The son of a landless farmer from the nondescript village of Appanickenpatti Padur in Tamil Nadu, Velumani saw through school and college on subsidised funding from the government.

“My parents were very poor,” Velumani said. “They never had the luxury of buying me a pair of chappals (sandals) or trousers. I was born at the bottom of the ten slices of the pyramid. It wasn’t easy. But today, I am at the top of the very pyramid.”

Last week, Thyrocare, the company Velumani founded two decades ago, made its debut on Indian bourses, with a valuation of Rs3,377 crore ($505 million), as on May 13. Velumani owns a 64% stake in the company. That makes him worth at least $323 million.

Thyrocare claims to be the world’s largest thyroid testing company, with a network of 1,122 outlets across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Middle East. It also runs one of India’s largest network of health diagnostic labs, processing over nine million samples and conducting over 30 million medical tests every year.

Source: Quartz (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Health Care
Tags
Base of the Pyramid