Who is Lalit Khaitan, India's newest billionaire at age 80?

Lalit Khaitan is India's newest billionaire at age 80 (Image credit: Radico Khaitan)

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. Going by his 40% stake in the company, Khaitan now has an estimated net worth of $1 billion.

Here is all you need to know about India’s newest billionaire:

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.

“From class 9 onwards, I was very clear that I wanted to be in the liquor trade,” Lalit Khaitan told Fortune in a 2020 interview. ““[Then] our market capitalisation was about Rs 5 crore. Today, it’s over Rs 5,000 crore.”

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.

Radico Khaitan started off as a bottling plant, and then made bulk alcohol. But as the business struggled, Lalit Khaitan decided to expand into branded beverages with the help of his son Abhishek. “Either go bankrupt or create our own brands. That is when I took the call to start our own brand,” the younger Khaitan told Fortune. And so, 8 PM whiskey was launched in August 1998.

Today, it is one of the largest manufacturers of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), with its brands available in over 85 countries. The company’s strategy of expanding its portfolio of premium brands has paid rich dividends, per Forbes. Today, it includes Morpheus brandy, After Dark whisky, Rampur single malt, 1965—Spirit of Victory rum and Jaisalmer luxury craft gin, among others.

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.