The US$ 4 bn Avantha Group, led by Chairman & CEO Mr. Gautam Thapar, is one of India’s leading business conglomerates.

The genesis of the Avantha Group lies in the erstwhile Thapar Group, amongst India's top ten business houses, founded by Lala Karam Chand Thapar in Calcutta (now Kolkata) over eighty years ago. India’s second largest producer of coal prior to coal nationalisation, the Thapar Group also had interests in sugar, paper, chemicals, textiles, banking, insurance, and engineering products and services. The Thapar Group went on to establish some of India’s most respected institutions, including Oriental Bank of Commerce, Oriental Insurance and Thapar University, to name a few.

The partition of the Thapar Group’s assets amongst its family members was completed at the turn of the century. Avantha is a thriving consolidation of the old conglomerate and Mr. Gautam Thapar represents the third generation of the illustrious business family, the baton having been passed on to him by his uncle, Mr. L.M. Thapar and his father, Mr. B.M. Thapar.

The group of companies run by Mr. Gautam Thapar was rebranded as Avantha, and the new identity launched worldwide on 15th November 2007.

Today, the Avantha Group has business interests in diverse areas, including power transmission and distribution equipment and services, paper and pulp, food processing, energy and infrastructure, farm forestry, chemicals, IT and ITES. With an impressive global footprint, the Group operates in over ten countries with 20,000 employees.

Group companies include Crompton Greaves Limited (CG), India’s largest power equipment company, and Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), India’s largest paper manufacturer, both listed on the Indian stock exchanges. Recently, CG acquired Pauwels (Belgium), Ganz (Hungary), Microsol (Ireland), Sonomatra (France) and MSE Power Systems (USA). BILT acquired Sabah Forest Industries (SFI) of Malaysia. Another group entity, The Global Green Company, acquired Intergarden (Belgium) and Puszta Konzerv (Hungary). With these acquisitions, products from the Group are not just at the apex in India but ranked at the uppermost worldwide.

Avantha Group’s other successful companies include Solaris ChemTech Industries, Avantha Power & Infrastructure, Biltech Building Elements, Salient Business Solutions and, of course, Avantha Technologies.

Across Avantha, good citizenship is a defined objective, with focused emphasis on education, community development and healthcare.

Avantha demonstrates strong leadership globally and emerges as a focused corporate, leveraging its knowledge, leadership and operations, adding lasting value for its stakeholders and investors.