Billionaire Ravi Pillai is considered the richest person in Kerala and among the most powerful Indians in the Middle East. The superrich self-made business tycoon has an inspiring rags to riches story with dramatic ups and downs in between. Pillai made it into history books of wealth most recently by becoming the first Indian to own the Rs 100 crore costing Airbus H145 helicopter. He flew in it on the chopper’s maiden flight to one of his 5-star hotels.
From being born as a son of a farmer struggling with poverty, Pillai made his way to the top with sheer determination, erecting the RP Group multi-billion dollar empire. He rose to wealth and fame with the construction giant which earns revenue of $7.8 billion (over Rs 64,000 crore) construction heavyweight. He then made inroads in businesses like luxury hotels, steel, gas, oil, cement, shopping malls.
Pillai belongs to a village in the coastal town of Kollam in Kerala and was born in a farming family with not much to spare. Nevertheless, his education was not compromised and Pillai earned a postgraduate degree in business administration from Kochi University. He dived into business with a chit-fund company, started on a loan and then formed a construction firm in India which unfortunately went bust.
Pillai did not give up and decided to go to Saudi Arabia in 1978. He eventually rose to form a construction company with 150 people. His workforce has today grown to over 70,000, a prime example of meteoric rise. Pillai also runs several 5-star hotels like The Raviz Ashtamudi, The Raviz Kovalam and The Raviz Kadavu. He owns several homes in different parts of the world. These include a Trump Tower luxury condo in Pune. He has stakes in banks, real estate and owns RP Mall and a 300-bed multispecialty hospital in Kollam.
In the Middle East, his RP Group is among the largest employers of Indian workers. His success was rewarded with Pravasi Bhartiya Samman in 2008 and Padam Shri honour in 2010 by the Indian Government. He received a doctoral degree from New York’s Excelsior College in the US.
He is also considered to have thrown the costliest wedding ceremony in Kerala at a reported Rs 55 crore for his daughter. The event was attended by top global CEOs, royal family members. The guest list had 30,000 people. It was organised by hit film Baahubali’s production designer. Pillai reportedly owns many luxury cars including Mercedes-Maybach S600, S500, Rolls Royce Ghost, Land Rover Range Rover Autobiography, BMW 5-Series 520d and Audi A6 Matrix. His net worth is over Rs 25,000 crore ($3.1 billion) currently, as per Forbes real-time net worth list.
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