Forbes names Indian business heiress in list of future billionaires

22 August 2008

Nishita Shah, 28, a businesswoman of Indian origin in Thailand has been named in the Forbes list of next generation billionaires.

A business graduate from Boston University, Shah is the managing director of Thailand's 140-year-old diversified GP Group, and one of the richest people in Thailand thanks to her shareholding in her family's sprawling business empire, with an estimated net worth at $375 million.

Shah is largest individual shareholder and director of Precious Shipping, Thailand's biggest dry-bulk shipper, with a 44-ship fleet making it amongst one of the largest, in this segment. This company was started by her father Kirit in 1989 and went public in 1993.

Shah is a director in over 40 group companies spread across 20 countries.

Her family had migrated from India to Burma and finally settled in Thailand. Her father's grandfather and great-great-grandfather, originally from Gujarat, used to trade in rice in Bombay and Rangoon, which was an Indian colony under the British. After the Burmese coup in 1962, they moved to the company's branch office to Bangkok, started by her great-grandfather in 1918.

She was made GP's managing director last year by her father, Kirit Shah. Precious Shipping, accounts for most of GP's value where she holds almost  42-per cent of the family's stake. With an estimated net worth of $375 million, her family has been ranked 19th on the Forbes list of Thailand's richest.