Founder of Sobha Group to give away half his fortune.
Bureau Report
CHENNAI: After Azim Premji donated most of his fortune to philanthropic causes, it’s the turn of PNC Menon, the founder of Sobha Group of Companies, with an estimated fortune of $600 million, to announce that he will give away half of his personal wealth to charity.
Dubai-based Menon, a first generation entrepreneur who began his professional career by setting up an interior decoration firm in the Sultanate of Oman in 1976, told Arabian Business that he plans to open education institutes in India and Oman.
“Once you make all of the money I don’t think you should keep all of it for your family, a large portion of it should go to society. I have decided that 50 per cent of mine should go to society,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
“My view is very simple; I am lucky to have made my money. After a certain point in time, money cannot make a difference in your life. I feel that its not even called charity, it’s about accountability and the responsibility of society,” he said.
Menon was ranked the Gulf Cooperation Council’s 21st richest Indian with a fortune of $600 million, in a list published last month by Arabian Business. His firm established Sobha Heritage and Sobha Academy in 2006 to provide education and social welfare to around 2,500 families in two villages in India, Vadakkenchery and Kizhakkenchery.
Realty firm Sobha Developers, where Menon holds the position of chairman emeritus, was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange in 2006. Bangalore-based Sobha Developers was founded in 1995. The Sobha group employs 28,000 people across the Gulf and India.
There are plans to expand operations across India and the GCC, Menon said.
Sobha will also expand its business to include a three-star hotel management company called Strada. “There is a huge market if we can manage such a group and manage it very well, there is a huge potential. We are looking at building up 50 to 100 hotels.
“We’ll be managing but initially some of the investments will be done by us and then over time we’ll only manage the hotels,” Menon said.
Azim Premji, Wipro chairman, and India’s third-richest man, according to a Forbes list released earlier this month, had in 2010 donated 8.7 per cent of the total stock of Wipro from his personal stockholding to philanthropy. Last month, he became the first Indian to sign up for the Giving Pledge, an initiative by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, and pledged to donate around 12 per cent of his stake in Wipro, said NDTV.
The other top Indian philanthropists are: Shiv Nadar, the HCL founder, who in one of his biggest philanthropic activities had in 2011 donated over Rs. 580 crore he had earned by selling his 2.5 per cent stake in the company. Nadar’s foundation has set up eight public secondary schools in partnership with the Uttar Pradesh government, according to a Forbes report.
In 2010, the Mahindra & Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra donated $10 million to his alma mater, Harvard University. The amount was donated to the Harvard Humanities Centre. Also, Vineet Nayyar, the executive vice-chairman of Tech Mahindra and the chairman of Mahindra Satyam, gave away Rs. 30 crore in March 2010 to the Essel Social Welfare Foundation, a Delhi-based charitable organization run by his wife.
Ratan Tata, who stepped down as the chairman of the Tata group of companies last December, donated $50 million to the Harvard Business School from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Tata Education and Development Trust in October 2010, said NDTV. Tata had attended an advanced management program run by the school.