Jaipuria to take Vaango in Singapore

Indian billionaire Ravi Jaipuria is planning to set up his South Indian restaurant chain Vaango in Singapore next year.

"A lot of Indian companies are making their base here," said the chairman of RJ Corp which holds the Indian franchise of the Western fast foods, Pizza Hut and KFC, and is one of Pepsi's top three bottlers in the world.

"Even though it may be a small base, our thinking is the same: to keep Singapore as the headquarters for the Southeast Asian countries and to expand from here," said Jaipuria, who recently became a permanent resident of Singapore.

"It's a very interesting market and can be a very important hub for us," stressed Jaipuria who is exploring more business opportunities in Singapore."

As a base, this (Singapore) would be a great place to work from," he said.

"The environment is good, the government is supportive, taxation is good, everything is positive in Singapore," said the 60-year old businessman whose corporate interests include the diagnostics industry.

Jaipuria's diagnostics business has 2,500 blood sample collection centres in India which receive about 5,000 samples every day.

He is also a majority shareholder in Cryoviva Singapore, a privately-run cord blood bank in the city state.

The cord blood bank is in partnership with Singapore businessman T Chandroo, with whom Jaipuria has mutual understanding of jointly doing future businesses in both Singapore and India.

Chandroo, among other businesses, is chairman of childhood education group Modern Montessori International.