Jahangir Siddiqui Group is one of the biggest financial services providers of Pakistan. This group is also the 2nd largest shareholder of the insurance company EFU. Jahangir Siddiqui was Pakistani Rags to Riches Business Tycoon, who founded JS group about 4 decades ago. The group comprises businesses with over 18,000 employees and profit after tax of $510 million in 2007

Overview
When most fourteen-year old boys were flying kites or playing cricket in their spare time, young Jahangir Siddiqui was busy running his business as a distributor of Coca-Cola in Hyderabad. Impressed? Well…there’s more. He also set up a swanky café in his father’s garage called Dreamland Cold Coffee Shop. Happily for him, it was adjacent to Firdaus cinema (owned by his uncle) and young Jahangir used to reap the benefits of customers pouring in during the intervals of three matinee shows.

“In the first year I made Rs.40, 000 and in the second year, I made around Rs.70, 000 which in those days was a lot of money,” laughs Jahangir Siddiqui. For a fourteen-year old, it still is a lot of money! Most young professionals have a starting salary of less than half of that!

Fourteen year old young boy, who is son of Govt. Servant, invested only Rs. 6000 in his Café Business at his father’s garage and distribution of Coca Cola in the 60s.

Many years on from Dreamland Cold Coffee Shop, Jahangir Siddiqui, the veteran stockbroker and pioneer in the development of Pakistan’s stock market is sitting at his desk in his modestly sized, sleek office in Karachi. He is impeccably well dressed in a suit and I am momentarily reminded of the elegantly attired JR Ewing from the 80’s hit series Dallas — minus the cowboy hat of course! But don’t get me wrong: JS is no JR. Far from it in fact. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth; he didn’t inherit a business empire from his father; he didn’t come from an incredibly wealthy family. No. Mr. Jahangir Siddiqui is a self made man. Despite the immaculate and formal suit, Jahangir Siddiqui is refreshingly casual and has a wonderful way of putting people at ease. He is jovial, chatty and remarkably frank.

Built over four decades, JS Group is one of Pakistan’s most diversified and progressive financial services groups.

Success Story

Born in Hyderabad, Sindh on 28 July 1948, Jahangir Siddiqui was the ninth of ten children — a big family even by the standards of the day. His father was a government servant and his mother a housewife. “I grew up in Hyderabad which in those days was a very clean city. In fact, in pre-Partition days, it used to be called the ‘Paris of the subcontinent’!” He laughs at my look of disbelief. “Really, it is true! I remember going for walks with my sisters on Thandi Sarak and the road was lined with trees. There is not a single tree there now though.”
A “reasonably religious culture” permeated the Siddiqui family. Jahangir Siddiqui’s father built a mosque which today stands opposite Sindh University’s city campus in Hyderabad. “We used to take care of the mosque and I remember once when there was no imam, my brother led the prayers. I used to collect donations,” reminisces Jahangir Siddiqui.

Every day after school, the young Jahangir would go the mosque for the afternoon or Asr prayer. He would not go home until he had also offered the sunset or Maghrib prayer. During the two-hour wait between Asr and Maghrib, Jahangir Siddiqui would pass the time with a friend of his who prayed at the same mosque. This friend owned a shop. “I used to sit in that shop and I’d see how many bottles of Coke they were selling on a daily basis and how much money they were making. I calculated all this and I thought to myself that I can start doing this business as well. All I needed to do was to make an initial investment of around Rs.6, 000.”

Showing an initiative and enterprise uncharacteristic of a fourteen year old, Jahangir Siddiqui decided to discuss the matter with his father. One can only imagine the father’s amusement when his fourteen-year old son told him that he wanted to start business immediately as a distributor of Coca Cola! “My father was a very straight guy,” laughs Jahangir Siddiqui, “but he never discouraged me. All he said was that ‘you don’t have the money.’ And that was the only thing he said.” The determined young boy took his father’s response to mean that his father did not disagree in principle with his son starting a business and the only problem was that his son didn’t have the money. Young Jahangir made up his mind to remedy that situation forthwith — by selling his father’s car.
“My father being a government servant went away on a four-day tour and I immediately called a kabari (second hand dealer) and told him that he could buy my father’s car,” says Jahangir Siddiqui. “What?” I exclaimed in disbelief.

“It was a standard vanguard car — a 1952 model,” he explains apparently oblivious to my concerns of the ethical question of selling your father’s car behind his back. “So what if it was?” I asked still reeling from shock. “I got Rs.1, 800 for it,” says Jahangir Siddiqui well humouredly.
“What! That’s nothing!” I didn’t know what worried me more: the fact that he sold the car or that he sold it and, to my mind, got practically nothing for it. “In those days you could buy a brand new Volkswagen for between Rs.5, 000 – 7, 000,” he smiles.

One had to admire his bravery – and nerve! I don’t think I would ever have the guts to sell my father’s car without him knowing! But then, I’m no Jahangir Siddiqui. Jahangir Siddiqui sold a lot of the coal and wheat stored in his father’s garage. “In those days there was no gas in Hyderabad so we used to use coal for fire and therefore there was a demand for coal. I sold all of it but I kept two sacks of wheat and coal for the house.” N He then cleared out the garage to make space for the café he would set up. “I needed a café or an outlet to sell cold drinks so I set it up in my father’s garage,” says Jahangir Siddiqui.

When his father returned home after his four-day tour, he was alarmed to see or rather, not see, his car. It was time for young Jahangir to explain himself: “I told him that I sold his car to raise money because I wanted to start my business and he had told me that I could do so only if I had the money. Well…now I had.”

Surprisingly, Jahangir Siddiqui’s father was not at all angry. “He laughed and gave me some more money because he knew that I was determined to start a business.” Jahangir Siddiqui’s father must have been a truly remarkable (and benevolent) individual! And two years later, Jahangir Siddiqui bought his father a brand new car —a Fiat 600.

Jahangir Siddiqui still remembers the day on which he started his business: “It was 15 May 1962,” he says. I would soon discover that Jahangir Siddiqui has a penchant for remembering dates.

Because he was doing so well in his business (he also was a distributor of ice cream and had a refrigerator shop) young Jahangir naturally lost interest in his studies: “Unfortunately, I was not able to clear two subjects in my Inter-Commerce examinations – I had lost interest in education.” His father was concerned. “My father was strict about education and he told me firmly but politely that he was not interested in my money making and that I had to study and become a professional.”

He may have been a willful child but he was certainly not disobedient: “I sold my business and gave my cold coffee shop on lease. As it is, the Coke distribution was automatically cancelled in 1964 because Coke set up its own factory in Hyderabad. I then started studying regularly just to please my father,” says Jahangir Siddiqui. The hard work paid off. He managed to complete his Inter-Commerce examinations and went on to do a B.Com in 1966 and secured a first division.

But during this time, he did not suppress his entrepreneurial instinct. He invested the money he had made from his business in two other businesses: “I invested some with a family friend to finance the purchase of a fishing trawler and the rest in the transport business of my elder brother. So that is how I became a private equity investor!”

In 1967, Jahangir Siddiqui started his training as a chartered accountant. He became an articled clerk to a firm in Karachi called Gangat & Co which was situated in the Securities & Safe Deposit Chamber on I.I Chundrigar Road in what is now the Al Falah Bank building. He used to go to work every day on a motorbike. But near his office was the Karachi Stock Exchange and one day, Jahangir Siddiqui decided to walk in.

During his student days in Hyderabad, Jahangir Siddiqui had bought a few shares in Adamjee Sugar Mills and Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills which he decided he now wanted to sell. The only trouble was that he didn’t know how to do it. Luckily, his friend’s brother was a member of the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and he handed Jahangir Siddiqui two transfer deeds which he told him he was giving him free of charge. “I thought he had done me a great favour only to discover later that transfer deeds are always given free!” laughs Jahangir Siddiqui who didn’t even know how to fill out a transfer deed! However, with a bit of help from his friend, Jahangir Siddiqui managed to sell and transfer his shares.

Something about the stock exchange excited Jahangir Siddiqui. Perhaps it was the thrill? Perhaps the buzz? Perhaps the potential to make a quick buck? Whatever it was, the young articled clerk was enamored and found himself going to KSE everyday on his lunch break. He would wander around absorbing how things worked. He got to know some of the brokers who advised him on what shares to buy. Unfortunately, he did not have much money back then. But he did have some money coming in from his investments in the trawler business of his friend and the transport business of his brother. With that money he bought shares in Habib Bank for Rs.16 per share. He later sold these at a profit: some at Rs.22, others at Rs.23 and some at Rs.27 per share. He also bought shares at Rs. 28 each in Habib Insurance and sold them for Rs.45 and Rs.50 and received cash dividends of 80%. This was big money for an articled clerk and the thrill was intoxicating. In his first year at playing the stock market, Jahangir Siddiqui, made around Rs.200, 000. In those days, the salary of a director of a big multinational was around Rs.2, 500.

Jahangir Siddiqui celebrated his success by buying himself his first car — an Opel Rekord: “When I came to Karachi, I lived with my brother in Garden road and used to get around on a motorbike. Every day, I used to see the car of my boss, Mr. Ahmad Adam Gangat — he had an Opel Rekord and I wanted the same car as him. The car was delivered to me on 1 January 1968.”

Sadly, Jahangir Siddiqui’s father had died two days before on 30 December 1967 — the day that his new car was actually meant to be delivered. But the son never forgot his father’s advice and his success in the stock market did not mean that he neglected his studies and he managed to pass his chartered accountancy exams on the first attempt. “So long as my father was alive, he was genuinely concerned about my education and was always telling me to focus on my studies and get a professional degree. That is why I did chartered accountancy,” says Jahangir Siddiqui.

By 1970, Jahangir Siddiqui had made a fair deal of money on the stock exchange which he entrusted to a broker friend of his. “He was a dear friend of mine and all my securities and shares were lying with him. In those days there was no Central Depository Company so brokers would have custody of your shares.” Seven days before his final chartered accountancy examination, the said broker called Jahangir Siddiqui to his office and told him that he was unable to pay his debtors and was filing for bankruptcy.

“I asked him what happened to my money and he told me that it was all gone! He was really upset and he was feeling terrible that he had lost his friend’s money. I tried to console him but he was naturally devastated. While we were discussing this, he got a chest pain and had a heart attack so I immediately took him to the hospital. I spent the night there and the next morning I went to his office just to open it and all the creditors were there.”

A week later, the broker’s condition had stabilized and he told Jahangir Siddiqui to take his office in the stock exchange in consideration for that entire he had lost: “He was an honest and honorable person and he didn’t want to be indebted to his friend,” explains Jahangir Siddiqui. “He said that if he started afresh, nobody would come to him so it would be better if I started a business and he would work for me as an agent. So that is how a career in the stock market was imposed on me!”

Jahangir Siddiqui started a small company called Jahangir Siddiqui & Co which essentially comprised of four persons. Today, Jahangir Siddiqui & Co is one of the largest and well respected financial services companies in Pakistan with several subsidiaries which include Abamco, Pakistan’s largest non-government asset management company, Jahangir Siddiqui Capital Markets and Jahangir, Siddiqui Investment Bank.

The broker also sold Jahangir Siddiqui some shares in companies such as National Shipping Corporation, Megana Jute and others: “I bought these shares at a higher value just to let him know that he doesn’t owe me anything. I bought these shares in May 1971.”

But trouble was just around the corner for a few months later the 1971 war between Pakistan and India started and this heralded the start of one of the most difficult periods in Jahangir Siddiqui’s life. “The market was not behaving properly and most of my shares were in East Pakistan companies and these just became worthless pieces of paper. I could not get anything for those shares. Then Bhutto came to power and emergency was declared and the market closed. So, I couldn’t afford to pay salaries because there was no commission coming in. It was a very bad situation. Then Bhutto began nationalization and everybody was a seller in the market when it opened and there were no buyers. It was terrible— even when the market opened we were not able to generate Rs.300 a month in commission and there were expenses of about Rs.2,000 in salaries, rent, petrol etc. Those were really bad days right up till 1975 because there was constant nationalization.”

But Jahangir Siddiqui survived the hardships of that period through sheer hard work and ingenuity. “I thought to myself that now I have started this business, I can’t go back. That is not what Jahangir is. I was determined to fight it out. And I fought it out. I developed the fixed income business —selling and buying bonds and government securities. By the grace of Almighty Allah, in the 80’s, 75%-80% of the daily volume traded in fixed securities was ours. So I became a broker of fixed income securities and I have never looked back.”

But the stock market, dominated as it was by Memons, was difficult for a Sindhi to break into: “It was very difficult for a Sindhi to be a broker,” says Jahangir Siddiqui seriously, “It wasn’t so difficult for Punjabis as Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari was a Punjabi and was a highly respected broker. There were quite a few Punjabis but I was the only Sindhi. So I didn’t have a proposer or a secondary. My father was not a businessman and no company listed on the stock exchange belonged to a Sindhi so I couldn’t even become a consultant to an issue nor did I have a potential customer base as there weren’t many Sindhi businessmen. Even if I went back to Hyderabad to ask the Sindhi community to give me business, they wouldn’t have known what I was talking about! Most of them didn’t know how to spell ‘share’ and thought immediately of ‘sher’ as in a lion!”

Basically, Jahangir Siddiqui did not have the right connections. This disadvantage in the long run turned out to be an advantage as it prompted him to concentrate in developing institutional clients. He began networking with directors of small institutions who were impressed when they met him.

“I would meet the General Manager of Deutsche Bank or American Express and they became my clients. I started getting business from institutions which in those days were very small such as Investment Corporation of Pakistan and National Investment Trust. That is how I transferred myself from retail business to institutional business and into the business of fixed income. So although it was very difficult for me as a Sindhi, because I was educated (and very there were very few people in those days in KSE who could communicate with those sort of clients), I could develop institutional clients. What made it easier for me was that they were not investing in equities but in fixed income and that is how I started doing the business of fixed income rather than equities because it was very difficult for me to get a customer base in equities.”

Luckily, Jahangir Siddiqui managed to develop a niche for himself and from 1975 onwards, he was only dealing with banks and financial institutions and not with individuals.

Despite being a Sindhi, Jahangir Siddiqui was fortunate enough to find two Memon brokers who helped promote him in the KSE: Mr. Z.A Saya and Mr. Amin Tai. “Mr. Saya promoted me a lot,” he acknowledges, “I really respect Amin Tai — he is a genuine person who also helped me a lot. We became friends in an interesting manner. There was a case in the arbitration committee and I was a board member. I argued and Amin put his views forward and after that he came up to me and told me that he liked my idea and I also liked his idea. We became friends and I started to treat him as a senior who would give me the right guidance. That relationship continues to this day.”

In time, Amin Tai and Jahangir Siddiqui would also be known as “the original corporate raiders.”I asked Jahangir Siddiqui about this with some trepidation as it was a delicate question and I wondered how he’d respond. He gave a ironic smile.

“There are two ways of looking at it,” he began, “you may call it corporate raiding but I would refer to it as being a value investor. This was in fact the training I got from Amin Tai as he is a value investor. There were certain companies in which I and Amin Tai bought blocks and tried to turn them around. We used to pick up companies which were either under-performing or there was a lot of potential for them to grow. It was not hostile corporate raiding. I can give you two examples. One is EFU. It was a friendly type of investment — one of the families controlling the shares was selling it through their broker and I bought the lot for myself and a client of mine. Till today, I haven’t sold them. I am on the board of EFU and it is one of the finest companies. Another example was Nafees Cottton in which Amin Tai and I had substantial holdings. Initially the management didn’t like that and they were very uneasy with me. But now we have a very good relationship. The company has changed its name to Azgard Nine and it is one of the finest denim producers in the country and we are two of the largest shareholders in that company. So I cannot say that we were corporate raiders. I was buying for the value and trying to turn around those companies, give them guidance if I could and if the management was willing to listen.

“I came into contact with a lot of entrepreneurs who had their own philosophies. I told them that if you run a public limited company, you have to have a corporate culture. You cannot run it as a sole proprietorship. Some of them didn’t agree and didn’t like what I had to say.”

Things didn’t always run as smoothly as Jahangir Siddiqui would have liked. The management of some companies resented his presence and the owners of one particular company even threatened to have him murdered!
“It was not always easy,” says Jahangir Siddiqui trying to suppress a smile. “We did have trouble with one company. The management was very hostile to us and I kept on telling them that I was not out to destroy the company — I would have been a fool of the first order if I was because I had purchased the company’s shares from the market to make money. And I can’t make money unless the company is turned around. If you improve the company, the share value goes up. But the management was still very hostile and we were threatened with murder or kidnapping. I wasn’t at all afraid of any of these threats because as I told you, I come from a very religious family and I firmly believe that our time of death is fixed. When you have to die you have to die — nothing or no one can stop it. So I wasn’t at all intimidated. In those days my mother was alive and she would pray and read the Qu’ran and tell me that all would be well. I really believe in those things.”

Fortunately, Jahangir Siddiqui survived the threats and the company was turned around and the management is now on friendly terms with him. And, Jahangir Siddiqui does not appear to hold a grudge: he achieved what he had set out to achieve. “We sold our shares on the market and we made money. Our intention was always to improve the company.”

Boosting the performance of foundering companies was not the only area where Jahangir Siddiqui made improvements. His contribution to the development of Pakistan’s stock exchange has been outstanding and will no doubt earn him a place in corporate history…and Jahangir Siddiqui subconsciously appears to have quite a penchant for the historical. “I studied a lot of profiles of different people. I really feel that you should be on the top of any profession you are in. Take lawyers for example. Mr. Jinnah was on the top of his profession, so was A.K Brohi. There are certain professionals who have gone down in history. Based on this, I went into stock exchange politics and was promoted by Mr. Saya. I was a board member for 13 years and Vice President for two years. Whenever I travelled abroad to say, Sweeden, India, Amsterdam, I used to meet with people from the stock exchange. And I thought we could change the culture of the KSE — in around 1987 or 1988, I really felt that we needed to revolutionize the KSE. Initially nobody supported any of my ideas except for Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari who was a young boy in those days but he believed in me. He always calls me ‘Bhai Jan’ and he kept on telling me that I was right about corporate membership and that it was something that we should do. So we went to the president of the stock exchange and his attitude was ‘over my dead body!’”

This was not the sort of response that a man like Jahangir Siddiqui could settle for; particularly when he felt that he was right. He decided to fight it out. “I thought that I would have to fight it out myself, become the president of the stock exchange and change the culture.” And…he did.

Jahangir Siddiqui contested the December 1989 elections for the presidency of the KSE and won against Arif Habib (the current Chairman) by one vote. He was president between 1990-91 — a revolutionary period in the history of the stock exchange. “Within six months, we changed the entire culture of the stock exchange,” says Jahangir Siddiqui, “corporate membership rules were made as were rules for minimum qualifications of brokers; I set up a library; I asked Mr. Iqbal Ismail (whom he fondly refers to as the “Professor”) to conduct classes for the brokers and agents to educate them; I went to see IFC and we established CDC.”

But Jahangir Siddiqui is not one of those men that love “the chair.” After a year’s stint as president of the stock exchange, Jahangir Siddiqui decided that he had done enough. “I think that whatever I wanted to see changed in the stock exchange I had changed. That is why after 1991, I didn’t contest any election. You have to leave when you are on top.” Again that awareness of history displays itself.

Jahangir Siddiqui also made history as far as his company was concerned. Ignoring the advice of practically everyone in the market, in 1991, Jahangir Siddiqui & Co became the first corporate securities brokerage in the KSE. “Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari got his company listed before mine. We got listed in 1993. People kept telling me not to do it and that I was a fool. They kept telling me that you own 100% of your company —why do you want to dilute your ownership to 30%? But my argument was, would you rather own 100% of a company with equity of Rs.20m or 50% of a company with equity of Rs.3bn? If you need capital and if you want your company to grow, you have to go public and share your prosperity with small shareholders.”

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Jahangir Siddiqui & Co was also the first securities brokerage with a Wall Street stamp. “We joined hands with Bear Stearns, one of the largest and most respectable firms in New York,” smiles Jahangir Siddiqui. A joint venture with Bear Stearns was no mean feat. Among its many achievements, Bear Stearns issued the first sovereign bond for Israel. After entering into a joint venture with Jahangir Siddiqui, it can now also boast of the fact that in 1994, it issued the first sovereign Eurobond for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in an amount of US$150m. The fact that Bear Stearns decided to do business with a Pakistani (and Pakistan in those days did not enjoy a good reputation in the international business world) speaks volumes about the faith they had in Jahangir Siddiqui. “I brought them to Pakistan, they bought 30% of my company and so the name was changed to Bear Stearns Jahangir Siddiqui and I was appointed CEO and Chairman. I was very touched at the faith they had in me. I mean, theirs was a US$55 bn company at that time and they lent their name to a company in Pakistan.”

Another landmark achievement was the establishment of Abamco in 1995, which is a subsidiary of Jahangir Siddiqui & Co. Abamco is a joint venture between Amvescap Plc (one of the world’s largest fund managers), IFC and Jahangir Siddiqui & Co. “I was told by the government that there is no private sector asset management company in Pakistan and there were no rules for this either. They said that they wanted to establish one and they wanted me to help. For three years I was in negotiations with people and I contacted Amvescap and they bought 30% equity in Abamco and they are joint venture partners with us till today in spite of all the difficulties Pakistan is facing.” Abamco is Pakistan’s second largest asset management company and the largest non-government asset management company. As at June 30, 2004, it managed approximately Rs.14 bn (US$ 240m) in assets.

More recently, Jahangir Siddiqui wanted to introduce another innovation into Pakistan’s capital markets: an electronic stock exchange. A company called Pex Ltd was formed for this purpose and was granted approval by the Securities & Exchange Commission to set up an electronic stock exchange. However, the boards of the Lahore, Karachi & Islamabad stock exchange created uproar notwithstanding the fact that the government had invited them and other brokers to establish such an exchange and they had been present in all the meetings in which the Pex Ltd matter was being discussed. All three stock exchanges filed a suit and went to court and obtained a stay order. The matter is still to be decided. As the matter is sub judice, Jahangir Siddiqui would not discuss it.

The ‘powers that be’ in the stock exchange are usually suspicious of and react strongly to change. “When automation of trading occurred,” says Jahangir Siddiqui, “they said that they would not allow it and they attacked the computer system of the KSE just to destroy it. And now, they cannot do without it. Similarly, they were not happy with the establishment of CDC, registration of brokers, capital adequacy rules, margin regulations. So, they don’t have a vision. That was the problem. They only realize the benefit of something after they have used it for a couple of years!”

But what would be the benefit of an electronic stock exchange? “The concept of a demutualized stock exchange needs to be there,” says Jahangir Siddiqui, “Demutualization is where the management of a company is different from the members who have trading rights. Presently, the stock exchanges do not have a demutualized system and the members are running it. In my opinion that is unfair — it is absolutely unfair. Let me give you an example. Think of the stock exchanges as a car. A car has four wheels. Now if you imbalance those wheels by making some bigger and some smaller, the car won’t run smoothly. Similarly, in any exchange, you have four prominent players: the issuer, the investor, the members (who are the brokers) and the regulator. If these four are not kept in balance, the car won’t run smoothly. What happens is that they are the judge as well as the jury as well as the prosecutors. Tell me: is there any representation of any issuer on the stock exchange? The answer is no. Tell me: is there any representation of any investor on any stock exchange? The answer is again no. But if you have a demutualized exchange you can have members representing the issuers, the trading community, and the regulator. What is the harm in it? Why do you want to manage the entire stock exchange yourself?”

I then asked Jahangir Siddiqui if he thought the three stock exchanges should be merged. “It’s a financial decision to be taken by the exchanges and they should do whatever is good for them. In my opinion, it is best to have competition. If, for example, all the telephone companies are merged into one, is it good or bad? It is certainly not good. You must have competition. Even if they do decide to merge, they should not stop anyone else from establishing a stock exchange. They shouldn’t merge simply to eliminate the competition. So if anyone is setting up an exchange, a merged stock exchange should not turn around and say that they will not allow another exchange.”

Our conversation then turned to the topical issue of mutual funds. “I think mutual funds are the future. We need to spend more time and energy on educating people about them. Individually, a person cannot invest in 700 companies, they cannot trade. With a mutual fund you just tell the fund manager your requirements i.e. whether you want a regular income fund, aggressive growth, a blue chip portfolio. Somebody else manages the fund for you. You don’t have time as an individual investor and you are at the mercy of brokers.”

Jahangir Siddiqui is so frank and forthright that I have difficulty reconciling his persona with the stereotypical image of a stock broker. Generally, people have very negative impressions about stock brokers and see them as wily people who can manipulate and “drop” the market as and when they feel like. For instance, if they don’t like the idea of CVT, they’ll protest by manipulating the market in such a way that it will ‘drop.’ Once again, a wry smile appears on Jahangir Siddiqui’s face. “It’s not that easy to simply ‘drop’ the market. I do tend to agree that unfortunately the perception of stock brokers is not that good. But not all brokers are like this —there are several good brokers. Of course, there are also so called ‘black sheep’ but you get those in every trade.”

Jahangir Siddiqui picked up on my passing reference to CVT and wanted to discuss it. “I entirely disagree with people who say that CVT is not good. I think CVT is one of the best solutions Shaukat Aziz has given in the budget. CVT is 0.01% — what is the total impact if you are buying shares of PSO? 3 paisas only. So are you really going to stop doing your business for 3 paisas? And if you are paying those 3 paisas to the government you are helping them to do a lot of projects and reducing the budgetary deficit. That is not a bad thing.”

“Your son disagrees with you,” I pointed out remembering that Jahangir Siddiqui’s son Ali wrote an excellent article for Blue Chip disagreeing with the imposition of CVT. Jahangir Siddiqui gives a broad grin.

“You know, we father and son are both independent people,” he says good humouredly, “I have always tried my level best to ensure that both my sons, Ali and Ali Raza should be independent and I am pleased that Ali has the courage to state his own opinions. If they don’t agree with me, I am fine with that. I have never imposed any decision big or small on either of them. I listen to them and if I have a different point of view, I argue with them and either I’ll be convinced or I’ll try and convince them.”

Jahangir Siddiqui has two sons: Ali and Ali Raza. Ali is a director of Jahangir Siddiqui & Co and is already making waves in Pakistan’s business scene a “I have the best of relationships with my sons” says Jahangir Siddiqui proudly. “When Ali decided to come back to Pakistan after his studies and join the group, I resigned as Chairman and director because I felt that if I remained, it would not be possible for him to grow. Smaller trees do not grow in the shade of larger trees. And Ali has grown the business far better than I could have done.”

Smaller trees do not grow in the shade of larger trees. His son has grown the business far better than he could have done

It is said that behind every successful man there is a strong woman and in this respect, Jahangir Siddiqui is no exception. He readily acknowledges that his elegant wife Mahvash has been a towering pillar of support. “Mahvash has done a lot for the family,” he says smiling. “We got married in 1975 and she is solely responsible for bringing up the children. I used to come home from the office very late – sometimes as late as 8.30pm and then straight away we’d have to go out for dinner. Ali and Ali Raza have good manners, good education and outlook and that is all because of their mother. She is a wonderful companion. She never complained that I didn’t give enough time to her or the children which I do realize now. In earlier days, I’d spend most of my time at the office and frankly speaking, up until about the year 2000, I wasn’t giving them enough time. Of course, I’d take them on vacation. They’ve traveled with me a lot and seen the whole world.”

Suddenly, his eyes light up. “Did you know that Mahvash was a professor of English? She was head of the English department at Khatoon-e-Pakistan College which is just opposite Agha Khan Hospital. She used to take the kids with her to lectures when they were young. So from a young age, my kids knew all about Shakespeare!”

These days, Jahangir Siddiqui comes to the office between 9.30 – 10.30am. He spends his first 45 minutes reading the newspaper clippings that the relevant department in his office has cut out for him to read. Now that he has retired as Chairman and director of the Jahangir Siddiqui group, he devotes a lot of his energies to the companies of which he is a director. “I do enjoy working on different boards,” says Jahangir Siddiqui, “I normally read the entire agenda before a meeting!” Jahangir Siddiqui is currently on the board of SMEDA, Gwadar Port Authority and various charitable foundations.

In the little spare time that he has, he likes to watch films. However, his choice of film depends on whether or not his wife is with him. “When I am alone, I watch a lot of films. You won’t believe this but my favorite ones are the Indian movies that come on Zee TV!” He laughs heartily. “I’m being completely honest with you! You see, there are many channels and Indian movies and Pakistani songs are the only things I like because you can enjoy them even if you catch those 30 minutes after they have started. They follow the same formula. But if Mahvash is with me then I watch what she likes. She is very fond of English movies — and if we are abroad, we go to the theatre.” He also has a small collection of coins. “It’s a small collection of coins of the subcontinent. Collecting those is a part time hobby of mine. I also have an old Qu’ran collection. When I was young, I used to collect stamps. I have quite a lot of stamps actually!”

I asked him if he was fond of reading. “No. I’ll be very honest with you,” came the reply. “The only reading I do,” he said picking up a bunch of papers on his desk, “is commercial reading.” I admired Jahangir Siddiqui’s confidence in him. He is proud of what he is and he does not try and pretend to be something he is not. There are no airs and graces about him; there is no arrogance or false pride that one so often finds in other businessmen. He exudes confidence but it is a confidence tempered by humility. This didn’t surprise me. Men of achievement, that is, real achievement, are also men of great humility.

Before ending our chat, I asked him what moments in his professional life he looked back on with pride. “As a stock broker, I did some work for a huge foundation who was investing a lot in the stock market. In 1979, we were closing down our equity section and concentrating more on fixed income. I wrote them a letter setting out this position. Our equity section then closed and didn’t re-open until 1991. When we resumed it, I called them and asked if they would like to give us business and they said that the original trustee had died and that when our company stopped doing business in equities, they passed a resolution saying that they would not do business with any stock broker but Jahangir Siddiqui. I became so emotional. I still become emotional when I think about that.”

Today’s JS Group

JS Group has grown from its roots in Pakistan’s financial services industry. JS Financial operates market-leading companies in asset management, investment banking, securities brokerage, commercial banking, insurance and trade finance.

Your browser may not support display of this image.The group also includes five vertical businesses: JS Industrial, JS Infocom, JS Property, JS Resources and JS Transportation. They believe each of these sectors, in itself, offers an exciting and attractive long-term investment proposition in Pakistan. Their diversification across these sectors allows JS to ride out each sector’s individual business cycle and take a long term approach to investing in and building their businesses. They started from stock trading and now Pakistan’s most diversified business group with Interest in Telecom, Media, Energy, Financial services, Real Estate, Transportation, and Industries.

The group has offices throughout the major cities in Pakistan and manages its international operations from its London and Dubai offices. The group comprises businesses with over 18,000 employees and profit after tax of $510 million in 2007.

JS Group Portfolio:

They owned and partially owned Al Abbas Industries, Al Abbas cement, Azgard-9, PICT, Dadex Eternit, TRG, Eye Television (Hum TV), Pak American Fertilizer Company, JSDL, JS Property, Sprint Energy, Hascombe Oil, AirBlue, JS Air, Accor Group – Hotels, Allianz – Insurance, Dubai Bank – Islamic Banking, Experian – Consumer Credit Bureau, Global Investment House – Securities Brokerage, International Finance Corporation – Asset Management, Ulker – Food, JS Financial, Jahangir Siddiqui & Co. Ltd, JS Global Capital Limited, JS Bank Limited, JS Investments Limited, EFU Insurance Group, and Bank Islami.

Success Analysis By: Salman A. Sheik

• He grew drastically because he had no family’s responsibility as majority of young entrepreneurs have.

• He invested Rs. 6000 in 60s that seems very small amount these days but it had huge worth those days.
• He started from humble beginnings and grew gradually, but majority of Young ENTREPRENEURS want to become business tycoon overnight. It concludes that Business has no shortcuts; everyone can’t become visionary Bill Gates.
• He had no formal business training but he was enthusiastic enough to learn business, so he learned gradually from his seniors in the business field.
• He was real genius and has immense intellectual level and analytical skill.
  As we know that smaller trees do not grow in the shade of larger trees, so Jahangir Siddiqui had no limit of his experiences and entrepreneurial spirit.
• He didn’t leave formal study for his business, and achieved Chartered Accountancy, which opened new horizons in Capital Markets.
• He became President of KSE by his strong leadership abilities.
• I noticed that Children of Employees have more potential than children of Businessmen, because Children of corporate class have all material goods.

Source: The Blue Chip Magazine

Love-the most immortal feeling a human can have in his life. Love is feeling that makes a person complete. Love brings happiness in an individual’s life and without love life is not complete. To love some needs a great soul, a great courage and a big heart. In this love world there are many examples that show how people can sacrifice everything for the sake of his love. The most prominent example being Edward VIII of United Kingdom who abdicated his throne to marry someone he wished. He left his royal powers to marry Mrs. Simpson, an American divorcee.

Edward VIII was born on 23rd June 1884 at White Lodge, Richmond in England. He was the eldest son of King George V and the Duchess of York. He was under the care of his misters and nanny until a certain age. He was formally educated at his home by Helen Bricka and studied in various colleges like Osborne Naval College, Royal Naval College at Dartmouth and Magdalene College, Oxford. He served for a brief period in British army during the First World War and also performed his specific Royal duties.

Meeting and Relationship with Mrs. Simpson:

In 1930 his father King George V gifted him a mansion Fort Belvedere, near Sunningdale, England. There he had relationship with several married women like American Textile heiress Freda Dudley Ward, American Film actress Mildred Harris, Lady Furness. Lady Furness for the first time introduced Mrs. Wallis Simpson (Future wife of the prince). Mrs. Simpson at that time had already divorced her first husband and was married to Mr. Ernest Simpson. It was a known fact Mrs. Simpson and the prince had fallen in love with each other when Lady Furness was on tour, though he adamantly told his father The King that he is not having any intimate relationship with Mrs. Simpson. On his accession to the Throne of the British Empire on 20th January 1936, he broke the royal rule by watching the proclamation of his own accession to the throne from a window of St. James’s Palace in the company of the then still-married Mrs. Simpson.

On 16th November 1936, he called his Prime Minister Mr. Stanley Baldwin at Buckingham palace and expressed his desire to marry Mrs. Simpson. Baldwin informed him that there will be huge chaos among his subject if he marries Mrs. Simpson as the Church of England doesn’t permits to marry a divorcee. People will not tolerate Mrs. Simpson as their new queen. Edward proposed a morganatic marriage in which Edward will remain a King but Wallis Simpson will not be a queen and she will enjoy less titles and status. Any children born to them will not be in line of succession to the throne. This was also overthrown by the British Cabinet and other Dominion Governments as stated by the Statue of Westminster, 1931 which states

“Any alteration in the law touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent as well of the Parliaments of all the Dominions as of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.”

The Prime Minister of Australia, Canada and South Africa made clear that they are against the marriage of the king with a divorcee and the Irish Dominion remained neutral while the Prime Minister of New Zealand, having never even heard of Mrs. Simpson before, vacillated in disbelief. With lot of opposition from every where king first responded that “there are not many people in Australia, so their decision doesn’t matter”. Edward told Baldwin that he will abduct his throne for Mrs. Simpson. Baldwin gave him three options: give up the idea of marriage; marry against his ministers’ wishes; or abdicate. Edward can’t live without Mrs. Simpson and he also knew that if he marries against the advice of his ministers then there can be a resignation from minister’s side and can create a constitutional crisis. He opted for abduction.

Edward duly signed the abduction instruments at Fort Belvedere on 10 December 1936, in the presence of his three surviving brothers The Duke of York, The Duke of Gloucester and The Duke of Kent.

At the night of 11 December 1936, who is now remained with a title of Prince Edward, broadcasted to the nation, his all explanations of abdication. In his famous quotes he said

“I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.”

At that night Edward departed United Kingdom for Austria and waited for several months for Mrs. Simpson over there until she was ready to get married.

Life after the abduction:

As soon as his brother Duke of York (George VI) came to throne he immediately announced his decision to make his brother Edward as the Duke of Windsor and awarded him highest degree of the British Empire. By making Edward as the Duke of Windsor George VI made sure that he could neither stand for election to the House of Commons nor speak on political subjects in the House of Lords.

The letters patent dated 27 May 1937, which re-conferred upon the Duke of Windsor, the “title, style, or attribute of Royal Highness”, specifically stated that “his wife and if any children cannot hold this title”. Many minister suggested his title cannot be conferred since he is not related to royal duties in any case. On the other hand some insisted marrying a prince will automatically have “Her Highness” title for Mrs. Simpson. On 14th April 1937, a memorandum submitted by Attorney General Sir Donald Somervell submitted to Home Secretary Sir John Simon which summarizes the view of Lord Advocate T. M. Cooper, Parliamentary Counsel Sir Granville Ram and himself, to the effect that:

· We incline to the view that on his abdication the Duke of Windsor could not have claimed the right to be described as a Royal Highness. In other words, no reasonable objection could have been taken if the King had decided that his exclusion from the lineal succession excluded him from the right to this title as conferred by the existing Letters Patent.

· The question however has to be considered on the basis of the fact that, for reasons which are readily understandable, he with the express approval of His Majesty enjoys this title and has been referred to as a Royal Highness on a formal occasion and in formal documents. In the light of precedent it seems clear that the wife of a Royal Highness enjoys the same title unless some appropriate express step can be and is taken to deprive her of it.

· We came to the conclusion that the wife could not claim this right on any legal basis. The right to use this style or title, in our view, is within the prerogative of His Majesty and he has the power to regulate it by Letters Patent generally or in particular circumstances.

Edward married Simpson on 3rd June 1937 at Château de Candé, near Tours, France, without the consent of Church of England. George VI, his brother ordered every family member not to attend the marriage but Edward wished the presence of his brothers the Dukes of Gloucester and Kent and his second cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten. After the marriage there was a huge conflict for not granting the status of “Her Royal Highness” to Duchess of Windsor (Mrs. Simpson acquired this title by default after getting married to Edward, Duke of Windsor. Also after marriage she changed her name to Wallis Warfield). Also there were a lot of financial settlements with the allowance that the new king was supposed to pay him. Also the Government refused to include him in the civil list. Edward possessed all his wealth from Duchy of Cornwall and the new King and Queen was forced to give him Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle. These properties were Edward’s personal property, inherited from his father, King George V, and thus did not automatically pass to George VI on his accession. Relation went bitter and bitter with his family and Edward once have written to his Mother Mary of Teck that

“Your last letter destroyed the last vestige of feeling I had left for you … and has made further normal correspondence between us impossible.”

The Duke(Edward ) was in a hope that he would return to England after a year or two of exile in France, but his brother George VI (the new king) with the support from their mother Queen Mary and his wife Queen Elizabeth threatened Edward that if he comes to England without any invitation, then his allowance can be stopped.

In his last days….

The couple settled in France. The French government provided them with a house in Paris with a nominal rent. French Government also exempted him from paying any taxes. In his last days he authored many books including the famous “A King’s Story” and “A family Album” that stated the style of the royal family starting from Queen Victoria.

He was paid for writing in Sunday Express and Women’s Home Companion, as well as a short book, The Crown and the People. He visited USA on the invitation of President Eisenhower and President Nixon invited the couple as a special guest of honor.

The Royal family never fully accepted the duchess and Queen Mary (mother of Edward) refused her to be a part. However, Duke sometimes met his mother (Queen Mary) and his brother King George VI. He also attended the funeral of the King. In 1965, the couple returned to London and attended various family gatherings.

In the late 1960s health of Duke deteriorated. Queen Elizabeth (Daughter of George VI and the new ruler of England) visited him on a state visit to France in 1972. On that year, May 28 Edward passed away peacefully from throat cancer. He was a smoker from an early age. His body was returned to Britain, lying in state at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The funeral service was held in the chapel on 5 June in the presence of the Queen, the Royal Family, and the Duchess of Windsor, and the coffin was buried in the Royal Burial Ground behind the Royal Mausoleum of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Frogmore. The Duchess stayed at Buckingham Palace during her visit. Increasingly senile and frail, the Duchess died 14 years later, and was buried alongside her husband simply as “Wallis, Duchess of Windsor”.

With all this tremendous situation love for each other never deceased. They loved each other at any conditions. For Love the King became a beggar. This is what a true love is. May god bless every couple with this kind of feeling. Long Live the King!!!

Satyajit Ray was a great Bengali Film maker and a great star in in the world of Bengali Film Industry. It is a dream for every actor and actress to get a chance to work with him. Today his 89th Birthday and in short i will try to sketch his bright career and work towards Bengali film industry.

Satyajit was born in the famous family of Roy Chowdhury originally a zamindar(LandLords) family from Mymensingh district in East-Bengal. He was born on 2nd May, 1921, in Kolkata to Suprabha Ray and Sukumar Ray , a great writer and creator of “Abol Tabol” (Nonsense Rhymes) and various other children stories. His Grandfather was Upendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury a great writer, illustrator, philosopher, publisher, amateur astronomer and a leader of the Brahmo Samaj, a religious and social movement in nineteenth century Bengal. Satyajit studied in Presidency College and at Santiniketan (Viswa-Bharati University). Satyajit initially started his career as a commercial artist and then he finally shifted his career to film making after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing the Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves during a visit to London.

Achievements:

Ray directed over 32 films, including various documentaries, short films and feature films. He was not only a great director but he was also a great film critic like his father. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, graphic designer. Ray’s first film was Pather Pachali, a legend in Bengali film industry. It won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Document at the Cannes film festival. The Apu trilogy includes

• Pather Pachali,
• Apu’s Sansar and
• Aparajito.

Ray did the

1. scripting,
2. casting,
3. scoring,
4. cinematography,
5. art direction,
6. editing and
7. designed his own credit titles and publicity material.

Awards

To his credit, Ray won many national and international awards and prizes that includes 32 National Film Awards, a number of international awards, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992.

His Films

Some of the greatest films ever produced in Bengali Film industry were directed b him, however not only Bengali but Indian film industry took benefit out of his qualities directed.

• Pather Pachali,
• Apu’r Sansar,
• Aparajito, Charulata (The Lonely Wife),
• Devi, Kanchanjungha,
• Nayak are his some of the greatest works.

Children stories

• Joy Baba Felunath(The Elephant God),
• Sonar Kella (The Golden Fort),
• Gupi Gayen-Bagha Bayen,
• Hirok Raja’r Desh e,
• Gupi Bagha Fire Elo are a few name to mention.

On his later creation, he created

• Aguntuk,
• Shakha Proshaka,
• Ganashutru,
• Ghaire Baire.

Ray has made various literary works for children. Feluda (A fictional Detective named Pradosh C. Mitter) is a very popular character among children. Various films like Sonar Kella, Joy Baba Felunath was made by him. There are lots of stories published on Feluda like:

• Bombay er Bombette (The Buccaneers of Bombay),
• Gorosthane Sabdhan (Beware In Graveyard),
• Chhinnamastar Abhishap (The Curse of Goddess),

and many many others. His Son Sandip Ray has made films based on some of the Feluda Story like

1. Bombay er Bombette (The Buccaneers of Bombay),
2. Kailash e Kelenkari (A Killer in Kailash).

His Characters:

• Other characters Like Professor Shanku (Scientist) is pretty famous among children.
• Tarini Khuro (Uncle Tarini ), a character not very famous is also awesome.

His AutoBiography

He has also written an auto biography of himself “Jokhon Choto Chilam” (When i was a kid) and and essays on film: Our Films, Their Films (1976), along with Bishoy Chalachchitra (1976), Ekei Bole Shooting (1979). Our Films, Their Films is an anthology of film criticism by Ray. The book contains articles and personal journal excerpts. His book Bishoy Chalachchitra was translated in 2006 as Speaking of Films, and contains a compact description of his philosophy of different aspects of the cinema. Ray also wrote a collection of nonsense verse named Today Bandha Ghorar Dim, which includes a translation of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”. He also authored a collection of humorous stories of Mullah Nasiruddin in Bengali.

Ray’s work is often described as full of universality and humanism and always underlying great and complex thinking. The great and legendary Akira Kurosawa, who declared,

“Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.”But his detractors find his films glacially slow, moving like a “majestic snail.

Ray’s work has highly appreciated by legendaries like Jean-Luc Godard, V.S Naipaul,Stanley Kauffman,Mrinal Sen. Though once V.S Naipaul had criticized his movie “Shatraanj Ke Khilari” with a Shakespeare play.

Ray has always been bestowed with great awards through out his life. He has been awarded with 32 National Film Awards by the Government of India. He was only among the three to win Silver Bear for Best Director twice in Berlin Film Festival and holds the record for the most Golden Bear nominations (seven times). Venice Film Festival, where he had previously won a Golden Lion for Aparajito (1956), he was awarded the Golden Lion Honorary Award in 1982.That same year, he also received an honorary “Hommage à Satyajit Ray” award at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Ray is only after Chaplin to receive Honorary Doctorate degree from Oxford University. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985 and the Legion of Honor by the President of France in 1987.The Government of India awarded him the highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna shortly before his death. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Ray an honorary Oscar in 1992 for Lifetime Achievement.In 1992 he received posthumously Akira Kurosawa Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing at the San Francisco International Film Festival, it was received by Sharmila Tagore. Entertainment Weekly magazine, In 1996,ranked Satyajit Ray at #25 in its “50 Greatest Directors” list. The Sight & Sound critics’ and directors’ poll ranked Ray at #22 in its list of all-time greatest directors in 2002.Total Film magazine included Ray in its “100 Greatest Film Directors Ever” list in the year 2007.

Satyajit Ray passed away peacefully on 23 April 1992 in Kolkata. He lives in the heart of every Indians specially all Bengalis across the border along with his wife Bijoya Das, his son Sandip Ray and Grandson. The Legend of the Indian Film Industry can never be forgotten and we remember him on this Birthday with great respect.

Late Dhirubhai Ambani was an Indian rags-to-riches business tycoon who founded Reliance Industries Limited, which is the India’s largest private sector conglomerate. Reliance is the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list.

His POWER to think BIG and Entrepreneurial spirit made him a true Billionaire

Few men in history have made as dramatic a contribution to their country’s economic fortunes as did the founder of Reliance, Dhirubhai Ambani. As with all great pioneers, there is more than one unique way of describing the true genius of Dhirubhai: The corporate visionary, the unmatched strategist, the leader of men, the architect of capital markets, and the champion of shareholder interest. But the role of Dhirubhai cherished most was perhaps that of India’s greatest wealth creator. Under Dhirubhai’s extraordinary vision and leadership, Reliance scripted one of the greatest growth stories in corporate history anywhere in the world, and went on to become India’s largest private sector enterprise. The founder died in 2002, but Reliance is moving ahead. Today’s, Reliance Group is one the most diversified business group in the corporate world, it started its operation from textile yarn trading with capital of Indian Rs. 50,000 in 1958, but now it has operation in Petroleum Exploration and Refining, Petrochemicals, Textile, Retailing, Power, Telecommunication, Entertainment, Finance, Health and Infrastructure.

Early Life
Dhirubhai Ambani was born on December 28, 1932, at Chorwad, Gujarat, India. His father was a school teacher. As he grew up to boyhood, he became even more vigorous, and unmanageable. He possessed enormous enthusiasm and huge energy and was always determined to do what he wanted to do in exactly the way he wanted it done. Dhirubhai was talented and highly intelligent and also as highly impatient. Formal education was not his goal, he realized very early in life. He was essentially an outdoors boy. As he grew up in humble family, he once said that “I’ll make heaps of money one day”. Just to show that that was not an empty boast, he once procured a tin of groundnut oil on credit from a local whole seller and sold the oil in retail sitting on the roadside, earning a profit of a few rupees that he gave to his mother.

A son of school teacher rose from humble beginnings found India’s Largest Industrial Empire, and in the process, became one of the Richest Man in the World. Next, he began setting up potato fries stalls at village fairs during weekends when his school was closed. He completed matriculation in 16 years old, he wanted to study for bachelor’s study but his father could not afford.

Life in Aden
He moved to Aden, Yemen to do job and to support his family. He worked there as a gas-station attendant, and as a clerk in A. Besse & Co – a largest transcontinental trading firm which dealt with all sorts of goods ranging from sugar, spices, food grains and textiles to office stationary, tools, machinery and petroleum products. Dhirubhai was first sent to the commodities trading section of the firm.

He acquired business training from A. Besse & Co – a largest trading firm of Yemen. Later, he was transferred to the section that handled petroleum products for the oil giant Shell. “I learnt business at the Besse which was then the best trading firm this side of the Suez,” he used to tell friends in later years. Speculation in manufactured goods and commodities was rife all over the Aden bazaars. Dhirubhai felt tempted to speculate but had no money for that and was still raw for such trading. There he learnt accounting, book keeping, preparing shipping papers and documents, and dealing with banks and insurance companies. At the boarding house where he lived with another twenty-five or so young Gujarati clerks and office boys, he devoted long hours of the night mastering English grammar, essay writing, current affairs and a host of subjects that took his fancy from week to week. He was the first to snatch the English, Gujarati and Hindi daily papers and weeklies as soon as they arrived by the ship every day. After he thought he had learnt the basics of commodities trading, Dhirubhai began speculating in high seas purchase and sales of all sorts of goods.

“Profit we share and all loss will be mine” became his motto. He did not have enough money of his own for such speculative trading. So he borrowed as much as he could from friends and small Aden shopkeepers on terms nobody had ever offered them. “Profit we share and all loss will be mine” became his motto. During lunch break and after office hours he was always in the local bazaar, trading in one thing or the other. There is doubt to say him a freaky entrepreneur. Dhirubhai had done well at the office during his first five years. Now he was sent on promotion to the oil filling station at the newly built harbour. By the late 1950s, Some of Dhirubhai’s friends told him that he should migrate to London where, considering his talents, and guts, he could find better opportunities of growth. Dhirubhai weighed his options. By now he had saved some money and was thinking of setting up some business of his own. Dhirubhai father had died in 1952. He decided to return home, instead of going to London.

Returned to India
After 10 years, Dhirubhai was now 26 years, full of youthful vigor and vitality, and filled with high hopes. He returned to India in 1958, and went to various places like Ahmedabad, Baroda, Junagarh, Rajkot and Jamnagar in Gujarat looking for opportunities. But he felt that with the small capital he had all that he could do in these places was to set up a grocery, cloth or a motor parts shop. A shop could give him a steady income but that was not what he was looking for. He was looking for quick growth, for constant excitement of trading, and for the hustle and bustle of a busy bazaar, as in Aden.

His Power to think BIG and strong Vision made him a true Billionaire; Reliance Group had $ 15 billion Turnover, when he died in 2002

He came back to Bombay, founded the Reliance Commercial Corporation with an initial capital of Indian Rs. 15000, settled himself, his wife and son in a two-room chawl and launched himself as a trader. The business was setup in partnership with Chambaklal Damani, his second cousin. All that his office had a table, two chairs, writing pad, a pen, an inkpot, a pitcher for storing drinking water and a few glasses. The office had no phone but he could make and receive calls on the phone of a next-door doctor paying him a small amount for every such call. From the very first day Dhirubhai began making rounds of Bombay’s wholesale spice market and collecting quotations of various items for bulk purchase on immediate down payment terms. From the very first day he began sending letters in Arabic to old contacts in Aden and trading centers of the Gulf Emirates. The letters carried rates at which Dhirubhai offered to supply various commodities like spices, sugar, betel nuts and other similar things.

Orders began trickling in after a few weeks, and were promptly fulfilled. Often goods were shipped even before payments arrived. Dhirubhai kept his margins low, volumes large and quality high. There was a lot of adulteration and mixing of substandard material in bulk shipments. Foreign exporters often complained that goods shipped from India were all so often a much lower quality than promised. Dhirubhai offered to do without payments due him in case his supplies were found below standard. That built a great reputation for him among overseas exporters. He offered to supply anything and everything required from India. He once got ordered of manure mixed topsoil from the gulf, it was really huge order but price offered was high. But nobody before that had ever received or fulfilled such an order. But that was the sort of challenge that always spurred Dhirubhai’s nerves. Ultimately, He shipped this order on given time, and made real big money, which was considered jack pot for him in his beginning.

After a few years, the thrill of trading in commodities began to wear out. Dhirubhai began to feel that trading in commodities would not take him far enough. Just about this time he made friends with some yarn traders in the chawl where he lived. They told him that there was big money to be made in the yarn business. Yarn trade was complicated, highly speculative and dominated by some big firms. Price fluctuations in the yarn market were vast which made the business extremely risky. Besides, yarn trade required a large amount of cash. But, if the risks were high, so were the margins for a man of daring. Dhirubhai liked that. He began frequenting the yarn market where he stood quietly at a corner during business hours and observed how the trade worked. Gradually, he began buying and selling different types of yarn, first in small quantities, then in ever-increasing volumes.

As business grew, so did his need for funds. He resorted to his Aden formula. Many of the small Gujarati building contractors, merchants and brokers were flush with funds. They used to lend their savings and surplus money at a high interest. They never lent a large sum to any single person. Dhirubhai offered them staggering rates of interest. When a deal turned out to be especially great, he topped the sum with some icing as bonus. To some others he offered his Aden terms – “loss is mine, profit I share.”

From there on he had no shortage of funds. Actually, every evening builders and merchants crowded his office with huge bundles of notes to lend. He came to be known as the man with the golden touch. He now began making huge deals in yarn, often booking lots on the high seas. As business grew, he shifted to a larger office. His two brothers, Ramnikbhai and Nattubhai, and some friends from his Aden days, joined him. Several big lenders came to his office and assured him that, far from wanting their money back, they would be happy to lend him more if he needed. Soon after, Dhirubhai was elected a director of the Bombay Yarn Merchants Association.

By this time, Dhirubhai had earned a name for himself in the Mumbai yarn market and at different handloom and powerloom centres of the country. But, recognition to him as the lion of yarn traders came when in the early sixties he introduced a new viscose-based yarn called chamki (shiny). Chamki had a distinct shine well suited for saris and dress materials. While most mill-owners were yet to see the wonder that Chamki could do Dhirubhai was quick to see its attractive features for saris and dresses. He took the next flight to Japan and booked a big huge lot of chamki filament for import. By the time his first chamki shipment arrived, the first few mills that had made saris and dress materials from the wonder filament were overwhelmed by the craze customers were showing for the new-look fabric. Dhirubhai’s first chamki lot sold like the recognizable hot cakes at a big premium. Over the next few months Dhirubhai had the chamki market in his grip. As the demand for chamki soared, so did Dhirubhai’s profit. That was where the first big flush of capital for the future Reliance Textiles came from.

Another big flush came from a government scheme in the mid-sixties for import of nylon yarn, then much in demand, against export of rayon fabrics. Nylon was not yet being produced in India and, as a craze for nylon fabrics, was growing in the country. Again Dhirubhai was the first to make use of it in a big way. He took to export of rayon fabrics in right earnest. Dhirubhai made the best use of his Aden connections. As in spices, so in rayon fabrics too he was quick in delivering orders. Dhirubhai felt that the nylon for rayon scheme might not last for long. He was making big money selling nylon yarn but he felt that he could make a lot more money if, instead of selling the yarn to mills, he himself converted the yarn into the material. The nylon craze was fast spreading from big cities to small towns and villages thanks to Mumbai films. So, he began playing with the idea of establishing his own independent manufacturing unit. He had built enough capital during trading in yarn to be able to launch him into the new orbit of manufacturing. That was his first major step towards what would later come to be hailed as his farsighted strategy of “backward integration.”

During the seven years between 1958 and 1965, Reliance Commercial Corporation (RCC) kept growing as more and more of Dhirubhai’s friends and colleagues from Aden joined him. In 1965 Chambaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Dhirubhai started on his own. It is believed that both had different tempermants and a different take on business, while Mr. Damani was a cautious trader and did not believe in building Yarn inventories, Dhirubhai was a known risk taker and he considered that building inventories with anticipating a price rise and making some profit is good for growth. Later, Dhirubhai ran his team more likes the head of a joint Hindu family than as a chief executive. He was friendly, flexible and forgiving in his conduct with his staff, showed understanding of human weaknesses and shortcomings. He had by now moved into a better and bigger apartment at 7, Altamount Road in South Bombay.

Journey into Textile
In 1966, Dhirubhai decided to start a textile unit of his own. He decided to set a brand new mill of his own. Not just a new one, but the best and the latest available technology. Later he said, in all my life I’ve never compromised on the principle. Eventually, he decided to build his factory at Naroda, which is a small town of Ahmedabad and was an emerging Industrial Estate. Reliance moved to plot, measuring 5,000 square yards. Today Reliance facilities at Naroda are spread over 125 acres there. The Naroda project started with just six people. Dhirubhai was the troubleshooter of the team, its leadership, planning, project management, operations, and coordination, all in one. A textile engineer joined him, who had studied in Germany and who had erected a similar factory in Colombo before Dhirubhai invited him on the team. Ambani wanted to make the best quality nylon material in the largest possible quantities by the quickest and most efficient way possible in the world, and he wanted to start at the earliest. “Nylon material is in great demand in India and elsewhere”. He can earn a big profit from the government scheme. The scheme is there now but it may not remain there for long. That is why he wants the factory so quickly.

Initially, he started with setting up a warp knitting unit. He selected German made machines to bring into India. Then, just after the machines had been ordered from Germany there was a bolt from the blue. In mid of 1966, the rupee was devalued by 36.5 per cent. The government also wound up major export promotion schemes, including tax credits, direct subsidies and import entitlement schemes like the nylon for rayon one. Devaluation steeply raised the project cost. Scrapping of import entitlement schemes upset the nylon for rayon plan. There were suggestions for calling a halt to the project. “No,” called Dhirubhai, “We are going ahead with the project as planned.”

Work continued at a hectic pace at Naroda. Machines arrived and installed. As Dhirubhai had wished and planned, production started on the four knitting machines on the target date of last quarter of 1966. Naroda factory began producing fine quality fabric. The fabric was fine and the prices offered were attractive. Yet nobody in the wholesale markets of Ahmedabad and Mumbai was ready to touch Reliance cloth. The wholesalers stonewalled Reliance at the instance of established big mill owners. He tried to convince wholesalers, but all in vain. However, Dhirubhai was not one to give up a fight once started. He went directly to retailers. In the next few days Dhirubhai’s staff fanned out all over the big cities, piling bales of Reliance fabric at the retailers’ counters without asking for any receipt or advance payment, no, not even seeking a promise of payment in future. He went to Mumbai himself, and loaded bales in his car. He said to them, I want you to grow with me, though at the moment I have nothing big to offer you. My brothers, some friends and I have just set up a factory at Naroda. We make this knitted fabric there. The wholesalers are boycotting our material for fear of the big mill owners. I offer this material to you. I don’t want any money. You sell it. If you make money by selling our material, then give me. His convincing and selling powers were outstanding. No cloth merchant had ever in his life seen a young man get out of a car with a pile of bales of cloth on his shoulders and introduce himself like that. It shows his real enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit. Eventually, slowly and steadily Reliance material began moving in the market without any promotion. In the meantime he named the Reliance fabric “Vimal”. Slowly the “Only Vimal” slogan began to emerge. It is Retail Chain store now a day.

As Reliance prospered, Dhirubhai kept ploughing profits back into Naroda, adding new machines and new in house facilities year after. Dhirubhai, his two brothers and their nephew, Rasikbhai Meswani, who had joined them during their yarn days, formed the core team. They worked hard like hell, talked like army generals in the midst of a battlefield, never bothered about creature comforts, and took quick decisions. He said to his team going to Germany for training, “You must keep repeating to yourself that one day we have to be bigger than Tata and Birla. But we can be bigger than them only if we master our machines. Just don’t limit yourself to handling the machines. Go with an open mind. Keep your eyes open. Demand to see everything, look into everything, and learn everything. People will not tell you all by themselves. You will need to ask them, needle them, and pester them. Unki jaan kha jaao (be after their life). What you learn will depend on what questions you ask. Don’t be with them just the scheduled six hours of the day. Stay there in the mill 24 hours. If necessary, sleep there. Most important: Make friends while you are there. We need to have friends everywhere, if we have to grow big. It was his talk like this that made us mad for success, mad to be the best, to be number one. It proved him as tremendous leader and motivator.

Your browser may not support display of this image.Reliance grew at a fast pace. Within four or five years of starting production, the number of warp knitting machines rose to about 20 in addition to a dozen warping machines. By 1972-73, the number of weaving looms rose to 154 even as ever new knitting machines. That year started an in-house design center, the best-equipped and the largest in India. In 1975, a World Bank team visited 24 leading textile mills in India. The team estimated the Reliance mill to be the best in the country. “Judged in relation to developed country standards,” said the team in its report to the Bank.

Naroda now became the grandest composite mill in the country where spinning, texturising, dyeing, heat setting, designing, printing, knitting, weaving, that is, everything for converting raw yarn into finished bales of fabric ready for the retail shops was done at one site. And, Reliance was now making not only saris and suiting but also all sorts of highest quality material ranging from camel wool suits to world class furnishing fabrics.

Equity Cult
Ambani took his company (Reliance) public in 1977. Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with starting the equity cult in India. More than 58,000 investors from various parts of India subscribed to Reliance’s IPO in 1977. Dhirubhai was able to convince people of rural Gujrat that being shareholders of his company will only bring returns to their investment.

Your browser may not support display of this image.Yet again, in 1980 the mill was expanded, renewed and renovated with the first synthetic polyester (POY) machines in India, and large spinning processing plant. Then, between 1984 and 1996, the entire face of the Naroda mill changed with installation of 280 totally computerized water jet looms, 72 looms, 24 Jacquard looms, 48 Dornier looms, and numerous other buffing, raising, piling machines were installed. Naroda also had the first, most modern effluent treatment plant of the country as also a captive mw power plant. Ambani’s net worth was estimated at about Indian Rs.1 billion by early 1980s. Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with shaping India’s equity culture, attracting millions of retail investors in a market till then dominated by financial institutions. Dhirubhai revolutionised capital markets. From nothing, he generated billions of rupees in wealth for those who put their trust in his companies. His efforts helped create an ‘equity cult’ in the Indian capital market. With innovative instruments like the convertible debenture, Reliance quickly became a favorite of the stock market in the 1980s. Ambani became high priest of an “equity cult” that finally drew the enormous savings of India’s middle classes into productive, risky investment. Paying high dividends and bonuses at a time when equities were seen as a low-return, risky investment made Ambani a hero to shareholders. Ambani had a strong belief in the group’s shareholders and went to them each time to fund his plans. It continued to be a textile company until the early eighties. Reliance later started seizing opportunities thrown up by a combination of the growing Indian economy and the opening up of the regulation-driven sectors of the economy. Beginning with the early eighties, Reliance pursued a policy of backward integration from textiles as well as diversification. An interesting fact is that the Reliance group has seen its most phenomenal growth. It installed PTA (purified terephthalic acid) plant, which is key raw material for Polyester.

Your browser may not support display of this image.Backward vertical integration has been the cornerstone of the evolution and growth of Reliance.

Reliance holds the distinction that it is the only Public Limited Company whose several Annual General Meetings were held in stadiums. In 1986, The Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries was held in Cross Maidan, Mumbai, was attended by more than 30,000 shareholders. Dhirubhai Ambani is regarded as Polyester Prince.

In 1992, Reliance became the first Indian company to raise money in global markets, its high credit-taking in international markets limited only by India’s sovereign rating. Reliance also became the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list. Starting with textiles in the late seventies, Reliance pursued a strategy of backward vertical integration – in polyester, fiber intermediates, plastics, petrochemicals, petroleum refining and oil and gas exploration and production – to be fully integrated along the materials and energy value chain.

Phenomenal growth
The company also successfully dabbled in the stock market; often creating controversy and there is no shortage of accusations that it `managed’ the political environment and has often been seen to have influenced policy making. A senior industrialist, when asked what differentiated Ambani from other businessmen, said, “Everyone managed to get things done during that period; only Dhirubhai managed it better.”

The secret of the success post-1986 is buffeted by the transition of power from the father to sons Mr. Mukesh Ambani and Mr. Anil Ambani with a clear cut division of responsibility between the two under the supervision of Dhirubhai Ambani. While one face of Reliance is its project implementation skills, the second is the financial wizardry. The project implementation team is kept away from all the happenings of the corporate team. The skills of the project team are borne out by the fact that it was able to implement the mega projects at Patalganga, Hazira and Jamnagar in record time. The financial team has, over the years shifted from raising funds from domestic equity investors to financial institutions and overseas investors. Today, Reliance enjoys a high credit rating and has no problem convincing institutional investors. The project implementation and finance teams are considered world-class and top of the line.

Death
Dhirubhai Ambani started his long journey in Bombay from the Mulji-Jetha Textile Market, where he started as a small-trader. At the time of Dhirubhai’s death on July 6, 2002, at Mumbai, Reliance Group had a gross turnover of USD $ 15 Billion. In 1976-77, the Reliance group had an annual turnover of IRs 70 crore and it is to be remembered that Dhirubhai had started the business with just IRs.15, 000.

Film
A film supposed to be inspired by the life of Dhirubhai Ambani was released in January 2007. The Hindi Film Guru shows the struggle of a man striving to make his mark in the Indian Corporate World with a fictional Shakti Group of Industries. The film stars Abhishek Bacchan, Aishwarya Rai, and Vidya Balan. In the film, Abhishek Bachchan plays GuruBhai, a character implicitly based on Dhirubhai Ambani. From beginning Dhirubhai was seen in high-regard. His success in the Polyester, Petrochemicals business and his story of rags to riches made him a cult figure in the minds of Indian people. As a quality of business leader he was also a motivator. He gave few public speeches but the words he spoke are still remembered for their value.

Today’s Reliance Group
The Reliance Empire was splited up between the Ambani brothers after the death of Dhirubhai Ambani. Mukesh Ambani got RIL and IPCL & his younger sibling Anil Ambani heading Reliance Capital, Reliance Energy and Reliance Infocomm. The entity headed by Mukesh Ambani is referred to as the Reliance Industries Limited whereas Anil`s Group has been renamed Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.In September 2008, Reliance Industries was the only Indian firm featured in the Forbes’s list of “world’s 100 most respected companies”.

His sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani have $ 43 billion and $ 42 billion respectively according to Forbes Top 10 Billionaires in the World 2008, accumulated wealth of both make them World’s Richest Indian, and stand up to World’s Richest Man – Warren Buffett, which have $ 62 billion

Reliance, acknowledged as one of the best-run companies in the world has various sectors like petrochemicals, textiles and is involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and gas, to polyester and polymer products. Reliance came in Petrochemicals and Refinery Business in 1999. The company’s refinery at Jamnagar accounts for over 25% of India’s total refining capacity and their plant at Hazira is the biggest chemical complex in India. Over time, Dhirubhai diversified his business with the core specialisation being in petrochemicals and additional interests in telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets, and logistics. Now the Reliance group with over 85,000 employees provides almost 5% of the Central Government’s total revenue.

Reliance enjoys global leadership in its businesses, being the largest polyester yarn and fiber producer in the world and among the top five to ten producers in the world in major petrochemical products. The Group exports products in excess of US$ 20 billion to 108 countries in the world including Pakistan.

Quotes
* Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitment deeper. And our efforts greater. But dreams with your open eyes
* Growth has no limit at Reliance. I keep revising my vision. Only when you dream it you can do it
* Between my past, the present and the future, there is one common factor: Relationship and Trust. This is the foundation of our growth
* We cannot change our Rulers, but we can change the way they Rule us
* If you work with determination and with perfection, success will follow

Awards and Recognitions
* A poll conducted by the Times of India in 2000 voted Him “Greatest Creator of Wealth in the Centuries”. He is the true son of India
* The Economic Times Award for Corporate Excellence for Lifetime Achievement
* Featured among ‘Power 50 – the most powerful people in Asia by Asia week magazine
* Dean’s Medal by The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, for setting an outstanding example of leadership
* ‘Man of the Century’ award by Chemtech Foundation and Chemical Engineering World in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the growth and development of the chemical industry