Reaping rich rewards

Britain's Asians have beaten the odds and become wealthier than before

Has steelmaker Lakshmi Mittal discovered the alchemists' secret of turning base metal into gold?

One year ago he was worth about £1.4 billion, a long way down from an earlier peak of about £2.2 billion. This year, he's about to be crowned the King of Steel and he's worth an astounding £3.5 billion.

That makes him the richest Asian in Britain and the fourth richest person in the United Kingdom. It also makes him the second richest Indian in the world after Azim Premji.

Mittal isn't the only British Asian for whom boom times have arrived. The Sunrise Asiana Asian Rich List, released on Wednesday, shows that Britain's Asian community is getting richer in leaps and bounds.

In their own ways they all seem to have become alchemists capable of turning almost anything into money.

The total wealth of the Asian billionaires and millionaires has, in fact, soared meteorically from £8.6 billion to £ 14 billion "" that's a 66 per cent rise in 12 months.

This growth has been fuelled both by old-timers who've become richer than before and by newcomers like Vedanta's Anil Aggarwal, who has made it to the list for the first time and is worth £540 million.

Take a look at the Jatania family. In the late '90s Mike Jatania and his family operated from a nondescript office about half a mile from Borough Station in south London.

The walls were covered with posters of unknown brands and one cabinet was filled with equally mysterious cosmetics and soaps. There was nothing to hint at great wealth or a business empire that stretched across Europe, Dubai and Africa.

But the Jatanias, who were originally from east Africa, were just emerging from their shell. Soon afterwards they staged an unnoticed coup by buying Harmony, a multi-million Unilever brand that had fallen on hard times.

Mike Jatania proudly announced that the group would push Harmony sales in places like Africa where it had strong distribution skills and that it was scouting for more brands that were on the auction block.

Today the Jatanias have arrived "" they are reckoned to be worth £650 million. That catapults them into third position in the rich list.

The Jatanias aren't the only Asian business family who are getting extraordinarily rich in a fast-changing world.

In the last four years since the Internet bubble burst the Asians have been building their strength in everything from hoteliering to retailing.

Old faces like Gulu Lalvani have grown richer than ever before and are looking at ambitious expansions: Lalvani now makes his Binatone phones in China and is looking at holding an IPO. He's also investing heavily in a luxury Thai holiday resort.

What's the secret of their continuing success? The truth is that nobody is quite sure. Philip Beresford, who compiled the list, puts it down to Asian values.

"Core Asian values may be playing a more important part in relative economic success than ever before," he says.

"The emphasis on families working together, thriftily sacrificing short-term gain for long term investment, and achieving a sense of economic security by owning tangible asset such as housing or commercial property perhaps accords with the more prudent economic circumstances of today."

The fact is that even through the Internet boom the Asians clung tenaciously to old-fashioned assets like property "" and perhaps that has stood them in good stead.

The Jatanias, for instance, prudently snapped up large swathes in the Paddington district which is suddenly emerging as a newly fashionable area in London. Today their property portfolio is worth around £80 million. Or, look at property developer Manish Chande, who till recently was on the board of Land Securities, the largest property company in Britain.

Britain's Asian millionaires (and billionaires) are an entirely different breed from the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who struck it rich in the late '90s. The Gururaj Deshpandes, Vinod Khosla and the Sanjiv Sidhus graduated from the IITs and became the flag-carriers of the hi-tech revolution sweeping the United States and the world.

By contrast, Britain's Asian millionaires came from humbler stock and it's reflected in the industries they dominate. The largest chunk are behind-the-scenes movers and shakers in the retail trade.

In fact, 48 are in the wholesaling or cash and carry businesses. The richest in this sector is Sir Anwar Pervez (£175 million, 10th position) who controls the giant cash and carry Bestway Holdings.

Pervez has also recently invested in a cement plant in Pakistan. He worked as a bus conductor in Bradford soon after arriving in Britain.

There are, of course, those who've grabbed the opportunities offered by the hi-tech revolution. One such is Dinesh Dhamija, who comes in just after Pervez in the list (£140 million, 11th position).

Dhamija, who owned a modest-sized travel agency went into cyberspace and is now one of Europe's largest e-travel agents. He has also moved boldly by transferring most of his call centre work to India.

There are other Asians like Dhamija who've used technology to their advantage. Take, for instance, boy wonder Ajaz Ahmed who is steadily carving out an ever-growing empire. Ahmed, 30, started his company AKQA New Media back in 1993. Today it's worth £35 million and he has a blue chip client list that includes Nike, Microsoft and Orange. AKQA is a hi-tech crossover and functions something like an ad agency on the Internet.

For Ahmed and the other hi-tech stars it has been a long-haul. But the ones who are moving meteorically are the former pharmacists turned businessmen. Take Vijay Patel (£425 million, 5th position). Vijay arrived in Britain from east Africa and owned 10 pharmaceuticals shops by the age of 30. Today, his ambition is to be a mini-Glaxo by 2010 and the analysts say he is on course to this target. His Waymade Healthcare had sales of £286 million last year.

Other ex-pharmacists who've come around the shop-counter and struck it rich include husband and wife team Navin and Varsha Engineer (£115 million, 12th position). Their company has prospered in recent years and they recently bought a molecule that may be used against multiple sclerosis. The Engineers are also looking at expansion to Asia and Europe.

But this year's rich list reveals another fact about Britain's Asian millionaires. Slowly but surely, they are moving into the mainstream of British life. Take Arun Sarin, chief of Vodafone, who checks in to the Asian Rich List with an estimated fortune of £25 million. Sarin is the chief executive of Britain's most high-profile company.

Or, look at Lord Alli, who shot to fame as one of the promoters of Big Breakfast, an offbeat early morning show in Britain. He made about £5 million by selling the Big Breakfast company. Now, he's one of the key movers behind Survivors, the reality show that has become globally famous. Lord Alli has more than survived in the wealth charts and is now worth £32 million.

Talking about the mainstream, there's also filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, reckoned to be worth £4 million after the success of Bombay Dreams. And filmmaker Gurinder Chadha is also a millionaire in her own right after Bend It Like Beckham became a runaway hit.

But there has been one extraordinary reversal. Britons haven't lost their taste for hot, spicy Indian food. But the profits at two leading food companies "" Patak's and S &A Foods "" have declined steeply. Patak (£30 million, 64th position) has had a few tough years and so has Perween Warsi (£35 million, 56th position) the doctor's wife who started in business because she couldn't buy tasty samosas in her neighbourhood.

Warsi has come a long way from the days when she made samosas at home and sold them in nearby shops. But it's no less a journey than has been made by hundreds of others self-made entrepreneurs who've defied the odds and turned adversity into wealth.