He built a fortune lending to low-income borrowers shunned by banks. He paid staff below-market wages and thought they still earned too much. He gave away almost all his wealth to a handful of employees, content with his small house and a $5,000 car.
R Thyagarajan is arguably one of the world’s most idiosyncratic financiers — in no small part because his multibillion-dollar business, the Shriram Group, has thrived in an industry that tripped up countless others around the globe.
A pioneer in extending credit to India’s poor for trucks, tractors and other vehicles, Thyagarajan built Shriram into a conglomerate that employs 108,000 people in everything from insurance to stockbroking. Shares of the group’s flagship firm hit a record in July after jumping more than 35% this year, four times more than India’s benchmark stock index.
Read the full story on Bloomberg here.