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| ?cquired Rusthof,Dutch” with a large garden in the front. And at the Heritage Square piazza a few meters away he is set to open the town’s first Indian and Oriental restaurants, which will also include a bar. And alongside Leeu House, again a first for Franschhoek, he will open a microbrewery. “So that’s our story in South Africa,” says Singh. Ranked by FORBES in the past as one of India’s richest, and with a net worth today of at least $975 million, Singh is the founder and chairman of Max India, with diverse interests in life insurance, health care, health insurance and senior living. Max India has had a successful joint venture with Life Healthcare in South Africa since 2011. (His nephews Malvinder and Shivinder Singh are health care billionaires.) Andre Meyer, chief executive officer of Life Healthcare, calls Singh “a friend.” “Analjit is best described by the quote, ‘The true character of a man is best measured by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.’ No matter who they are, Analjit always treats people as his equal, with dignity and respect,” says Meyer. Singh is highly respected in India’s corridors of power. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honors, in 2011. The son of Ranbaxy founder Bhai Mohan Singh, he graduated from the Doon School in Dehradun in 1971 and got an M.B.A from Boston University. He lived in the U.S. for seven years before founding Max India in 1985. The 61-year-old Singh, who is also the nonexecutive chairman of Vodafone Vodafone India, lives in New Delhi with his wife, Neelu, and children Veer, Piya and Tara. “Why am I [in South Africa now]? Was this a part of my plan and vision? Absolutely not,” says Singh, who visited Johannesburg for the first time in 2010 for the FIFA World Cup with his wife and elder daughter Piya, when they also traveled to Cape Town for two ultimate team coins nights. “The year before, my younger daughter Tara had flown to Cape Town for a wedding. [Before her trip], when she asked me if she could go, I said ‘Absolutely not,’ and I asked her, ‘How the heck do you get there?’ She [finally did], phoned me and said, ‘It’s your kind of place, and you have got to come.’ I came here out of intrigue. I wanted to know if Tara was pulling my leg or if it was for real. So I arrive here, see the airport, see the town and see this is Africa. I never imagined you would have this little European jewel sitting out here.” After that first inspiring visit Singh returned to Cape Town not once but twice over the next six months. “I was entering a phase in my life where I was looking for some stillness. I was looking for places to be in that are tranquil, that encourage inner peace. I was looking for settings that are meditative in nature. |
The 61-year-old Singh
