B. Ravi Pillai (born 2 September 1953) is a Dubai-based Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chairman of the RP Group. As of May 2023, his net worth is estimated at US$3.1 billion.[2]
Ravi Pillai was born on 2 September 1953 at Chavara,[3] a coastal town in Kollam, in the state of Kerala in Kadappa Pillai Veettil family.[4] He has a degree in Commerce from the University of Cochin.[5][3]
During his time at university, he launched his first business, a chit fundinKollam on reportedly borrowed money.[6] Later, he started an engineering contract business and worked for some of the major industrial houses in Kerala such as Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited, Hindustan Newsprint Limited, and Cochin Refineries.[6] However, a labour strike forced him to close down his business, after which he went to Saudi Arabia in 1978 where he started a small trading business.[7] Two years later, he moved into construction, and established Nasser S. Al Hajri Corporation (NSH) with 150 employees,[7] which has over the years grown to become the flagship company of his business group,[3][7] RP Group, which is known to employ over 70,000 employees across its businesses.[5] The shopping mall in South Kerala, RP MallatKollam city is owned by Pillai.[8]
Pillai has expanded his business to other countries including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain, and has interests in construction, hospitality, steel, cement, and oil and gas industries.[3] RP Group is known to hold stakes in hotels such as Leela Kovalam, Hotel Raviz,[9] Kollam, and WelcomHotel Raviz Kadavu,[10] Kozhikode in his home state of Kerala.[11] He is involved in health care through Upasana Hospital and Research Centre, a 300-bed multispecialty hospital in Kollam.[3][12]
Ravi Pillai is married to Geetha, and they live in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[2] They have two children, a son Ganesh Ravi Pillai, and a daughter Arathi Ravi Pillai.[15]
He paid for his daughter Arathi's wedding with Adithya Vishnu at Kollam in November 2015, at a total expense of ₹55 crores ($7.5 million), in accordance with Nair customs and cultural traditions. The wedding was organized by the production designer who worked on the film, Baahubali: The Beginning., and is considered the most expensive wedding in Kerala to date.[16] His son Ganesh Pillai married Anjana Suresh, an engineer, in September 2021.[17]
