Known as the ‘Pipeline King’, Rajen Kilachand made his fortune through the Dodsal Group, which has a long history of winning key infrastructure contracts in the UAE and beyond. The group was founded in Mumbai in 1948 by the Nandlal Kilachand family in partnership with a British trading company. Today, it is a multibillion-dollar organisation based in Dubai, with 10,000 employees worldwide. Its services span a wide range of sectors including energy, industry and infrastructure and it has completed projects in more than 22 countries across the Middle East, Europe, Africa, India and South East Asia.
In 2015, Dodsal Group announced it had made a major natural gas discovery in Tanzania after having signed an exploration agreement with the Tanzanian government in 2007. It later described the discovery in the Ruvu Basin, around 50km from the capital Dar Es Salaam, as Tanzania’s biggest onshore natural gas find, with the potential to significantly boost the country’s reserves.
The group said last year it was in talks with banks to raise a further $300m for its gas exploration and production activities in the east African country. Chairman and president Rajen Kilachand continues to lead Dodsal, with plans to take it from a $200m multi-retail interest company to a world-class multi-billion dollar organisation.
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