Thakral looks to unlock value through lifestyle spinoff listing, India expansion

[SINGAPORE] Inderbethal Singh Thakral, CEO of mainboard-listed conglomerate Thakral , has seen the family business evolve significantly since it was founded more than a century ago in 1905.

Established by his grandfather as a small textile store in Bangkok, it has since transformed into a multinational group, with businesses spanning beauty and fragrance distribution, real estate, retirement living and drone technology.

But Bethal, as he is popularly known, told The Business Times that one principle has remained remarkably constant.

“We unlock the value from the business, put the cash in the property and unlock value from the properties as well,” he said, describing a formula passed down from his grandfather.

After making a pivot into distributing lifestyle products in 2013, the group announced in September that it would look to spin off its premium lifestyle business for a separate listing on the Singapore Exchange.

The premium lifestyle business consists of beauty and fragrance distribution, largely in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau; Nespresso in India; and DJI and other content-creation products in South Asia.

Bethal said that the proposed listed entity will focus on premium lifestyle retail and distribution. Drone manufacturing and services, which sit outside that consumer-focused proposition, will remain with the parent.

“The lifestyle business has done extremely well over the last five to seven years,” he added. “The team has a very strong footing.”

In the first half of 2026, the core segments of its lifestyle business recorded a 47 per cent increase in profits from the year-ago period, on track to surpass a 25 per cent growth target the group had initially set for the financial year, he noted.

Revenue for the segment rose 33.6 per cent to S$209.2 million in H1 from S$156.6 million a year earlier.

The group’s overall revenue growth was partly offset by a S$22.3 million negative contribution from quoted investments, mainly reflecting an unrealised fair-value loss on its stake in Australian retirement-living operator GemLife.

The group’s revenue nevertheless rose 18 per cent year on year to S$189.4 million from S$160.5 million; it posted a S$6.4 million loss.

Bethal believes that now is the right time to unlock value through a listing. He told BT that the business has reached a point where it can grow more effectively through its own platform, with its own management team and direct access to capital.

Thakral will continue to hold a majority shareholding in the spun-off entity, he noted. However, such a listing allows the lifestyle business to raise capital, while also offering investors a more transparent valuation for the asset.

“We’re taking a business that has a subjective value, and then now putting a full crystallisation of value around it,” he said.

Such a spinoff enables investors to look at the group on a sum-of-its-parts basis – where each asset can be assessed on its own – alongside its property portfolio and operating businesses.

While the size and pricing of the initial public offering have yet to be decided, he said that proceeds would ultimately be used to support further growth.

The proposed listing would mark Thakral’s third major spinoff in two years, following the 2025 listings of GemLife on the Australian Securities Exchange and UK-based Beauty Tech Group in London, both in which the Thakral group holds significant interests.

These have allowed the group to carve out value in businesses it helped to build through capital markets, while retaining minority ownership in the assets.

Now, the group is returning to Singapore’s bourse for the new entity. Bethal noted that Singapore’s stock market is becoming an increasingly supportive environment for such a listing.

He added that initiatives under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Equity Market Development Programme offer an attractive platform for the listing, particularly with more focus on providing liquidity in the trading of small and mid-cap stocks.

Opportunities in India

Bethal said India offers room for further expansion, both in its lifestyle business and property projects.

He sees the country as one of the group’s most important long-term growth markets over the next two decades.

“The market is there,” he said. “You can see some niche areas that there is room for us to play in.”

South Asia was the lifestyle segment’s largest geographical market in H1, with revenue rising 27.9 per cent to S$110.1 million.

Earlier in September, the group said it was expanding its lifestyle product distribution network in South Asia, particularly for its DJI products, through local retail partners such as Reliance Digital and Croma.

Outside its lifestyle business, Thakral recently increased its ownership of a major mixed-use property project in Gurugram, a city neighbouring New Delhi, raising its stake to 95.3 per cent after initially taking a minority position.

The 2.5 million square foot project is expected to include residential apartments, a hospital of up to 900 beds and a health and wellness centre.

Bethal anticipates the project to unlock the value of the land while limiting Thakral’s construction exposure. A hospital operator is expected to develop and run the hospital under a long lease, while a separate developer will handle the residential component under a revenue-sharing arrangement.

For the project – like the group’s other ventures in the past – the strategy has always remained the same, even as market conditions change.

Bethal said Thakral spent three to four years studying the site – located near Delhi’s main airport and a large number of multinational companies – before deciding to take control.

“We always look at how we can create and unlock value,” he added.