SM Shetty

SM Shetty (born Shiroor Mohandas Shetty) is an Indian businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of the SM Group of Industries which includes food, real estate, pharmaceuticals and agricultural companies. Born in Mangalore, Karnataka, Shetty obtained a degree in engineering from Manchester University and has been based in Mumbai for the past 50 years where he resides in JVPD Scheme. Shetty has been known to keep a low profile and barely ever allows the release of public information about him or his family. He refused to be featured in a leading Indian newspaper's list of Karnataka's wealthiest businessman citing privacy as his concern.
SM Foods, the food company of the SM Group was founded in 1986, and have been manufacturing and distributing some of India's most popular snacks across the nation in bulk. These come under the flagship brand Peppy including Piknik, Peppy, Cheese Balls, Simba Chips (bought in 2002 from the African company), Ringz, Trio as well as other food products sold India wide such as Vital Oil (bought from Britannia Inc in 2003), Peppy ka Zaika (an instant Indian food mix) available in London and New York at speciality food stores and supermarkets.
In 1993, SM Group founded SM Pharma and SM Biomed in Malaysia. The pharmaceutical and biomedical companies have marketed and promoted products for leading pharmaceutical companies around the global within South East Asia as well as being the 2nd highest manufacturer of Clarithromicyn and Glibenclamide tablets. They are the largest exporters of pharmaceuticals from Malaysia.
Shetty's only public side has come to the forefront when it comes to philanthropy. He is the donor and chief trustee of the S.M. Shetty International High School and College in Powai , the land and entire infrastructure of which he donated and continues to be the main contributor to. In 2010, eminent actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan along with husband Abhishek Bachchan attended the school's annual day as guests of Shetty.
Shetty has received numerous recognitions and awards for his philanthropy from the Bunt Community and other institutions. He has been continuously recognised for his business achievements and is the recipient of the Lions Gold Award, the Rajiv Gandhi Award and other honours.
Shetty has rarely maintained a relationship with the press whom he prefers to avoid. He has refused requests for the shooting of 5 Indian Films who wished to use his Mangalore house as a location. He has two daughters, Vyna Shetty and Vaishali Shetty Oza. He is known to be fond of art having collected and preserved numerous paintings from close friend and late artist MF Hussain.
The SM Group's other interests include real estate (the Pearl Academy Design Institute in Mumbai is based in SM Centre) as well as agriculture (the group own Chiteri, a leading manufacturer of animal sanitisers and medical equipment for animals). Shetty was also responsible for bringing luxury French fashion brand Pierre Cardin to India along with close friend Suresh Kalmadi in 1994.
Although Shetty has never publicly declared his net worth, he was referred to as the reclusive businessman with a reported net worth of 905 million USD in 2013 while SM Foods reported an annual turnover of 850 crore that year.

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