Ugandan-born Sudhir Ruparelia worked menial jobs in
the United Kingdom, saved up, returned to the country of his birth and built
the largest property portfolio in the land ****
The next time you find yourself
walking or driving through the Central Business District of Kampala, Uganda’s
bustling, cosmopolitan capital, take a moment to gaze up at the city’s
impressive glistering skyline.
And if you bother to count the buildings one by one,
chances are that you’ll count a decent number belonging to Sudhir Ruparelia, a
Ugandan property developer, hotelier, banker and Africa’s newest billionaire.
Born in Uganda 56 years ago, Ruparelia was compelled
to relocate to the United Kingdom with his parents when he was 16. The year was
1972 and Uganda’s Indophobic leader at the time, Idi Amin had expelled all
African-Asians from the East African country in an ethnic cleansing move. Idi
Amin’s government claimed that indigenous Indians were hoarding wealth and
goods to the detriment of indigenous African and were ‘sabotaging’ the economy.
While in the United Kingdom, Ruparelia survived by doing menial jobs and
diligently saving his earnings. By 1985, when he was 29, he returned to Uganda
armed with $25,000 in savings with which he started building the eponymous
Ruparelia group now valued at about $1.5 billion with interests in everything
from hotels, residential real estate, insurance and floriculture to banks and
educational institutions. His controlling stake in the Ruparelia group makes
him Uganda’s richest man, with a net-worth of at least $1.1 billion, according
to data available to VENTURES AFRICA.
Legend has it that Sudhir Ruparelia, a 56 year-old
ebullient, yet controversial Indian-Ugandan tycoon, owns half of the buildings
in Kampala. Of course, this is a hyperbole of monumental proportions, but
judging by the cheeky grin on his face, Ruparelia apparently relishes the
exaggeration.
“If I owned half of the buildings in Kampala, I’d
probably be god,” he says cheekily. “Reports of my property holdings are quite
frankly, grossly exaggerated. I don’t own half of Kampala as people suggest,
but I own quite a lot. And I’ve worked very hard for it,” he says the last
sentence emphatically.
Speke Hotel Group
Ruparelia owns a significant chunk of Kampala’s most
prestigious pieces of commercial and residential real estate and in some of the
swankiest neighbourhoods in the country. Through one of his holding companies,
Speke Hotel Group, he owns in his kitty, the Speke resort, a 5-star Hotel and
resort which sits on 76 acres on an idyllic setting at Munyoyo on the shores of
Lake Victoria. This is easily the most valuable asset in his extensive property
portfolio. The resort has 59 Presidential suites, mainly because in 2007, the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting took place there and 59 Heads of state
were present. Sudhir says he built the resort specifically for the meeting.
Other facilities include 10 state-of-the-art conference rooms, including a
1,000-seat ballroom and 9 multi-function meeting rooms accommodating groups of
10 to 300. The resort also has Uganda’s only Olympic size swimming pool, an
equestrian centre and a choice of bars and restaurants. The property has a
current value of at least $160 million according to Ruparelia, a figure
corroborated by a couple of estate surveyors in Uganda. In 2010, the Libyan
Government had attempted to acquire the resort for $120 million. Sudhir
declined.
Managing Editor With Sudhir Ruparelia at Crane
Towers, Kampala
“The price was simply not good enough,” he recollects.
“In any case, it would be hard for me to contemplate selling Speke resort. The
place holds sentimental value for me. 59 Heads of Government were in this
place. I think it’s hard to place a value on that,” Sudhir says during a recent
lunch meeting with VENTURES AFRICA’s Managing Editor.
While Speke Resort remains his most important
property till date, Sudhir also owns an impressive collection of other valuable
hotel assets. He owns the prestigious Kabira Country club which has 95
luxurious guest rooms. Kabira Country club is the preferred leisure spot of
many of Uganda’s wealthiest people and young highflying professionals. Sudhir’s
portfolio also includes Speke Hotel which is located in Kampala’s CBD and
Tourist Hotel, a budget hotel also located in the CBD. He also owns Speke
Apartments, which provide 27 modern serviced apartments in one of the best
residential areas of Kampala. Rent at the apartments are not cheap – at least
by Ugandan standards. The cheapest you’d pay for a one-bedroom apartment is
$1,800 a month. And if you think the price is outrageous, the apartments are
fully booked all the time, mostly by corporate executives, expatriates and
government officials.
But these are just five of his properties. Through
his real estate holding company, Meera Investments (which is named after his
first daughter), Sudhir owns at least 300 residential and commercial properties
in Uganda, from the landmark Crane Chambers located on Kampala road in the CBD,
which serves as the Headquarter for his many businesses to scores of other
apartment blocks, shopping centers, office buildings and chunks of extremely
valuable land in the city. He owns Baumann House, another landmark building in
Kampala, located on Parliamentary Avenue, Kampala. The building houses the
Headquarters of the Ugandan Police force and previously served as the office
for over 200 Members of Parliament in Kampala. Sudhir also owns 2 private
Islands. In 2011, Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni revealed that Sudhir
earns $400m per annum from his businesses, mostly from his real estate
concerns.
Crane Bank
Sudhir Ruparelia is the founder and dominant
shareholder in Crane Bank, Uganda’s second largest commercial bank.
The beginnings of Crane Bank were modest. When
Sudhir Ruparelia returned to Uganda from the United Kingdom, he began importing
popular brands of Kenyan alcohol with the $25,000 he had saved through his
years of working menial jobs in the United Kingdom. Uganda had no breweries at
the time and so the country depended largely on imports. Sudhir struck a coup
when he acquired the sole rights to distribute Kenya’s most premium beer brands
in Uganda. Along with importing alcoholic beverages, Ruparelia also ventured
into importing commodities like salt, sugar and cigarettes from traders at the
Mombasa ports.
At the time, the vast majority of Sudhir’s customers
were foreign nationals who paid for their stock in foreign currency. Sudhir
spotted opportunity. He quickly formed an informal foreign exchange business.
It became an immediate success, and Sudhir was making daily profits of about
$10,000.
“I knew I had hit something big,” he says.
By 1989, President Yoweri Museveni banned the
importation of beer in an effort to encourage indigenous manufacturing of
alcohol. Sudhir decided he was not interested in producing beer. He opted to
focus on his informal Forex business instead.
In 1990, Sudhir formalized this currency trading
business when he opened Crane Forex Bureau. It was the first of its kind in
Uganda and it is still the biggest chain of Forex Bureaus in the country.
With the daily profits Sudhir was realizing from
Crane Forex bureaus, he started buying up huge chunks of land and dilapidated
commercial and residential structures in Kampala’s CBD and other suburbs at
ridiculously low prices.
“Some of the properties I bought at the time were
valued at about 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars. That was way back in the early
90s. Properties were cheap back then and we were making a lot of money on a
daily basis, so I kept acquiring. Today, many of those properties are worth
millions of dollars,” Sudhir explains.
It was during this period (1990 – 1994) that
Ruparelia acquired a huge chunk of land and property in Kampala’s CBD, as well
as several other choice properties which house his numerous hotel, tourism and
residential interests. Sudhir says he acquired some properties for as little as
$50,000 in 1991 and they are worth $12 million today. Many of the properties he
owns made their value within 4 years. It’s with the rental income earned from
these properties and his thriving forex business that Ruparelia continually
acquired more properties at dirt cheap prices.
As Sudhir’s forex business became so large, he decided
it was time to build an even bigger financial services corporation. He applied
for a commercial banking license which was granted. By 1995, Sudhir opened the
doors of his new bank, Crane Bank to the general public. Sudhir used customer
deposits to fund large-scale forex deals as well as acquisitions, developments
and other activities in the Ruparelia Group while leveraging on impeccable
customer service, attractive interest rates for deposits and the largest ATM
network in Uganda to lure customers. Today, Crane Bank is the second largest
commercial bank in Ugandan- second only to Stanbic Bank. In 2011, the Bank’s
Profit before tax (PBT) was UGX90.23 billion ($40m) representing about 61
percent of Stanbic’s pre-tax profit of $65.4 million. Sudhir is the controlling
shareholder of Crane Bank.
Other Assets
Other companies in the Ruparelia group include
Goldstar Insurance, an Ugandan non-life Insurance firm. The Ruparelia Group
also owns Kampala International School (KISU), an international high school in
Kampala located in the high-brow Bukoto district. KIS’ students are children of
Uganda’s elite and the school fees per annum are as high $13000. The property
sits on 12 acres of prime land at the center of Kampala. The property the
school sits on is valued at over $15 million alone. He also owns Kampala
Parents School, a secondary school in Kampala for middle-class Ugandans and
Rosebud, Uganda’s largest exporter of roses. Rosebud commands around 35% of
Uganda’s rose export, exporting over 9 million stems per month.
Controversy
In 2010, a Canadian businessman Sadrudin
Gulamhussein claimed Sudhir attempted to fraudulently acquire Gulanhussein’s
$1.2 million property by forging a land title for the property located in
Nasakero, a highbrow residential area in Kampala. The case lingered in court
and the Judge ruled in favour of the Canadian businessman. Read more about the
case here.
Philanthropy
As Uganda’s richest man, Sudhir is also one of the
country’s most notable philanthropists. Sudhir has given away millions to
building churches, mosques, rehabilitating schools and funding hospitals.
*Breakdown Of Sudhir Ruparelia’s Key Assets*
Meera Investments – $600 million
Crane Bank – $250 million
Speak Hotel Group – $240 million
Rosebud – $10 million
Other Investments (Schools, Personal Homes) – $30
million
Labels: billionaire Sudhir Ruparelia, Crane Bank uganda, Speke Hotel Group, Sudhir Ruparelia uganda
