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The Chairman and Managing Director of BGR Energy Systems B G Raghupathy (known as BGR) passed away in Chennai on Sunday night.
Company spokesperson confirmed the sudden demise of the 59-year old first generation entrepreneur who incorporated the company in 1985 as a joint venture with GEA Energietechnik GmbH, Germany. On June 28, 2007, the company name was changed from GEA Energy System (India) Limited, to BGR Energy Systems Limited and in 2008 the company was listed on the stock exchanges.
BGR Energy carries on the business in two segments, the supply of systems and equipment and turnkey engineering project contracting.
Prior to founding the Company, Raghupathy worked as a marketing executive specialising in the sale of industrial equipment, instruments and control systems. He subsequently served as the CEO of Introls, a company engaged in trading. He had over 34 years of experience in the fields of marketing, sales and management.
People close to him say that the company saw a phenomenal growth in the last 30 years and one of his aspiration was to join the league of companies like BHEL in the sector.
Raghupathy was developing independent power generation projects of 2,640 MW in India.
BGR Systems reported a net profit of Rs 163.67 crore and a revenue of Rs 3,107.17 crore in 2012-13.
BGR Systems was originally incorporated to manufacture and sell On-line Condenser Tube Cleaning Systems, Debris Filters and Rubber Cleaning Balls used in Thermal and Nuclear Power Plants. In 1993, Raghupathy and members of his family became the sole shareholders of the company and began to expand the range of product and services range in the Power and Oil & Gas industries.
Raghupathy's wife Sasikala Raghupathy and his first daughter Swarnamugi Karthik joined the Board in February this year. The other two daughters and son are also with the company in different positions. Arjun, who completed his BE recently is going through training in the company and it was learnt Priyadarshini did engineering and management courses.
The company which has got an order book of around Rs 11,000 crore has been in the forefront in bagging some of the big orders including the recent one being a Balance of Plant (BoP) contract from Odisha Power Generation Corporation for OPGC’s coal-based Super Thermal Power Project - 2x660MW project at Banaharpalli in Jhasarguda district of Odisha. Value of the contract is estimated to be around Rs 1,573 crore. It has another Rs 1,548 crore project from National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC's) to supply steam turbine and generators (STG) among others.
BGR Energy has a strategic partnership with Hitachi for manufacture of Super-critical Boiler, Turbine and Generators of 660 MW, 800 MW and 1000 MW. The partners are setting up a manufacturing plant with an investment of around Rs 2,750 crore.
The group is a multi-product and multi-location business enterprise.
Raghupathy has to his credit achieved successful finalisation and consummation of many technology and equity collaborations with European, US and Japanese companies. The company has grown to a full service EPC company for turnkey engineering and contracting for Power and Process sector projects. He has led the company to execute and deliver upto 500/600 MW coal-based power projects and gas-based combined cycle power plants.
The company is now one of the three market majors in EPC business for power projects in India, including capability to manufacture a portfolio of large and high-tech equipment.
In the year 2008, BGR Energy was listed on NSE and BSE under his leadership. The group employs more than 2,000 professionals comprising of Engineers, CAs, CSs, Legal and management graduates.
