LUDHIANA – Business tycoon Abhey Oswal (67) died of massive heart attack in Moscow at around 11.15 pm Wednesday night.
Belonging to a reputed business family of the city he was the son of late Lala Vidya Sagar Oswal and brother of leading industrialists Jawahar Oswal, Jangi Lal Oswal and Neelam Oswal.
He is survived by his wife Aruna and two sons- Pankaj, Shaiendra – and a daughter Shalu, who is married to former MP and leading industrialist from Haryana, Navin Jindal.
His body will be brought to Delhi by a chartered plane late in the night and the cremation will be held at Lodhi Road crematorium tomorrow.
Often mentioned as “second only to Dhirubhai Ambani”, Abhey initially worked in the family business but in 1990 he diversified into fertilizers. He started two units- one at Shahjahanpur (UP) and another at Paradip (Orissa). In 2005, Oswal started taking personal interest in the health-care and real estate business.
One of his projects near Riviera Resorts, Pakhowal Road is near completion while the other two will be developed on the Mall Road and opposite PAU (Premium apartments). Oswal’s risk-taking ability coupled with his knack of bouncing back, with remarkable élan, from not-so-successful business ventures will be missed by industry.
By 1990, he started venturing out into businesses like sugar, vanaspati and rice. He later went on to set up the world’s largest grassroots phosphoric acid plant that, unfortunately, was unable to achieve its full capacity utilisation because of some technical and administrative reasons.
Oswal set up a urea plant in Shahjahanpur, with a capital outlay of Rs 1,368 crore. The plant, which started production in 1995, was one of the seven plants set up on the Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur pipeline.
In 2005, Oswal disposed of the fertilizer units and started focussing on developing healthcare facilities. Oswal was said to be close to some confidantes of former PM Rajiv Gandhi.
He was the Chairman of Oswal Agro Mills Limited that operates under the business of real estate and investing activities and trading. The company has one subsidiary, Oswal Overseas Ltd., at UAE, and two associate companies- Oswal Greentech Ltd. and News Nation Network Private Limited.
There were some setbacks like the project about the development of land at Chembur, Mumbai, for residential and commercial complexes, which was shelved on court orders.
He took personal interest in Mohan Dai Oswal Cancer Hospital in Ludhiana.
Rohit Datta, general secretary of the Sutlej Club, said, “Abhey was a strong believer in karma, which brings both good and bad fortune.”
