Ketan Somaia
Early Start
The Dolphin Group would never have been established if Somaia didn’t create those other businesses in the first place. He started with Marshalls LTD in 1989. Marshalls LTD became one of the most successful automobile distribution companies on the African continent, marketing world car brands such as the Peugeot, Honda, and Tata. He went on to launch the Minvani Sugar Company, one of Kenya’s biggest sugar producers, an international casino, which head casinos in Nairobi and Mombasa, and the Dolphin Leisure Club, an independent leisure and fitness club based out of London.
In 1992, Ketan Somaia established Block Hotels, one of Africa’s first hotel conglomerates. It became on of the region’s most successful hotel chains and includes at least 12 hotels like World Famous Tree Tops and Nyali Beach. It became so popular that later, Sheraton Hotel & Resorts, one of the world’s hotel leaders, purchased it. He went on to diversify his businesses by adding Cine Asia to his growing list of establishments. Cine Asia LTD is an Indian publishing house producing a magazine about Bollywood movies.
Growth and Success
Somaia later formulated all of his entrepreneurial groups under one corporation that strengthens his investments in leisure, media, hotels, manufacturing, car distribution, and the tourism industry throughout Africa. The Dolphin Group changed its name to Dolphin Holdings after it grew under the leadership of one of Somaia’s past business partners, who became its chairman in 2010.
Links:
Ketan Somaia rallies as businessman, sportsman, and philanthropist