Mr. Shiv Khemka
Vice Chairman, SUN group

Shiv Vikram Khemka is a Vice Chairman of SUN Group, a private, family-owned investment group active in Russia, India, Europe and the US. The Group is active in direct investments, private equity, venture capital, asset management and sector specific investments in various industries including beverages, energy, real estate, mining and technology.

Shiv was born in New Delhi, India, and grew up in England, where he attended Eton College. Following his graduation from Brown University with a BA in Economics in 1985, he worked for several years overseeing his family’s business interests in Latin America, living in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico. He received his MBA with distinction from the Wharton School of Business and a Master’s Degree in International Studies with distinction from the Lauder Institute in 1990, with a specialization in Latin American studies and Portuguese language and literature.

The Khemka family itself has a business history going back more than a hundred years in India, having been one of the largest traders and exporters of minerals, principally iron ore and manganese. The family was one of the first enterprises to start business activities with Russia and several Eastern European countries, helping export capital goods including mining equipment, power stations and metallurgical plants to India since 1958. Shiv Khemka moved to Russia in 1990, he worked with his brother Uday and his father, Nand, to set up SUN Brewing in 1992, to build a beer business in Russia and Ukraine. In 1992-93 SUN Brewing acquired 5 breweries around Russia. The company today has 13 breweries in Russia and Ukraine.

As SUN Brewing restructured its breweries, SUN pioneered a number of Western financing concepts in the Russian financial markets. In 1993, SUN brought in various global financial institutional investors through an equity private placement. In 1994, SUN issued Global Depositary Receipts and in 1995, SUN Brewing was listed on the Luxembourg Stock exchange. During this period, SUN Brewing became one of the first Russian companies to move to US GAAP accounting standards. In 1997, SUN raised a convertible structured financing and in 1999, after several years of significant financial and management restructuring, including the launch of various new beer brands, SUN brought in Interbrew (a Belgian beer company) as its strategic partner for the business.

By the end of 2005, the company had grown from gross sales of US$ 30m in 1993 to gross sales of just under $1 billion, significant profitability and a market share of just under 20% in Russia and about 37% in Ukraine where it is the market leader. Brands include Klinskoye, Sibirskaya Korona, Tolstyak, Tinkoff, Stella Artois, Beck’s, Staropramen and Brahma. In January 2005, SUN Group converted its shareholding in SUN Interbrew into shares in the holding company Inbev (now the world’s largest beer company after the merger between Interbrew and Ambev). Mr. Nand Khemka remains chairman of SUN Interbrew, and Shiv and Uday remain on the board. At the time of this swap, the Russian and Ukrainian business had a market capitalization of approximately US$4 billion.

More recently, SUN Group has set up SUN Natural Resources, a vehicle to invest in the global energy and natural resources sector. SUN has started to acquire stakes across the energy value chain in Russia, India and other parts of the world. SUN also has an active role via SUN Asset Management in setting up various investment vehicles for Russia and India, working with leading global institutional investors.

Mr. Khemka was nominated a ‘Global Leader for Tomorrow’ at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1997 and was invited to join the Forum’s Foreign Business Leaders’ Council for Russia. SUN is a member of the Russian Prime Minister’s Foreign Investment Advisory Council (FIAC) and Mr. Khemka serves on the EMEA Board of Wharton Business School and on the Board of Governors of the Lauder Institute. He is also a member of the advisory council of International Crisis Group (ICG), Chairman of the Russia Country committee for the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), a member of the board of Eurasia Group in New York, and a member of Young President’s Organization.

Mr. Khemka speaks several languages including Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Hindi. He is the President of the Aikido Federation of India. He has also published various articles and books, and enjoys playing the Sarod, an Indian musical instrument. He is also involved in social and philanthropic activities in India and Russia through various family foundations.

Mr. Khemka now lives in India with his wife, Urvashi, and family.