The earliest expansion into a new business line came through Dr Mehrotra’s exposure to oil trading, which built his energy industry expertise and lead to the company buying its first jack-up rig in 1989. Subsequent investments, including a $600m purchase of three purpose built jack-up rigs, has seen the company establish Foresight Offshore Drilling as a standalone entity successfully delivering on contracts for international oil majors.

Bold moves were also made to push the company into less familiar territory and buffer the group against the cyclical nature of the global shipping industry. In 1992 a joint venture in China saw the firm begin its journey into hospitality, developing China’s first Indian restaurant and created a brand “The Tandoor” which for 25 years operated 5 Indian Restaurants across China out of which 2 were awarded Michelin’s status. In 2020 as part of realignment of group’s strategy the division was sold.

In 1999 the group also developed a manufacturing presence in India building skills and partnerships in the footwear materials & component manufacturing to support exports for India under its subsidiary GTFC Limited based in Chennai-India the business was set-up in technical collaboration with global industry leader Rhenoflex GMBH based in Germany, GTFC LIMITED today is India’s largest manufacturer & supplier of footwear materials for the exporters of footwear from India and its manufacturing plant in Tamil Nadu India employs more than 250 people and business is reporting a CAGR growth of 15%.

In 2008 the group set-up a joint venture with UK’s leading footwear retailers Pavers Limited to develop a consumer brand “Pavers England” focused on India’s dynamic growth opportunity of consumer demand for fashion accessories. Pavers England in 2012 received India’s #1 single brand Foreign Direct Investment approval and have since then developed the brand.