Meet 80-year old Lalit Khaitan India’s newest billionaire

Lalit Khaitan has joined the elite three-comma club at the age of 80. According to Forbes, the chairman of Delhi-based Radico Khaitan has become India’s newest billionaire after the shares of his publicly traded company jumped more than 50% this year. 

Who is Lalit Khaitan?

Lalit Khaitan is the chairman of Radico Khaitan, best known for manufacturing alcoholic beverages like Magic Moments vodka, 8 PM whiskey, Old Admiral brandy and Rampur single malt.

Radico Khaitan was earlier known as Rampur Distillery & Chemical Company Ltd. His father, GN Khaitan, had bought the loss-making company in the early 1970s. Khaitan inherited the distillery from his father in 1995 when GN Khaitan divided the family businesses between his four sons.

Khaitan was a teetotaller until his father acquired the Rampur distillery business in 1972 for a price of Rs 16 lakhs. In fact, his father GN Khaitan was a lifelong teetotaller who belonged a traditional Marwari family.
Khaitan has studied at prestigious institutes like Mayo College, Ajmer and St Xavier’s College, Kolkata. He holds a Bachelor degree in Engineering from BMS college of Engineering, Bangalore and has completed a Managerial Finance & Accounting course from Harvard, USA.

Lalit Khaitan is the recipient of several honours, including a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the UPDA (Uttar Pradesh Distillers Association), with which he was honoured in 2017. He also won the ‘Inspirational Lifetime Achievement Award’ at Alcobev 2008 held by Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies.

Radico Khaitan has numerous competitions despite being in a favourable position to profit. The largest participant is United Spirits, a listed Diageo subsidiary that was formerly run by the colourful liquor magnate and former billionaire Vijay Mallya, who is now a fugitive in London. Others are niche producers like Goa-based Stilldistilling Spirits India, which makes Maka Zai rum, and Third Eye Distillery Holdings, which makes Stranger & Sons gin.