“I came here on a hope and prayer. But I had lots of dreams,” he told Arabian Business earlier this year. Those dreams have turned out pretty well: Petrochem Middle East FZE was established in 1995 in the free zone of Jebel Ali in Dubai and has its own state-of-the-art storage terminal for bulk and drum chemicals.

Established as a partnership with Petrochem UK, the company has grown from strength to strength and has become one of the largest independent petrochemical distributors in the Middle East.

Helped by the 51-year-old’s strong leadership, the rapid development of the company soon led to its expansion overseas and it currently has offices in Dubai, Jebel Ali, Mumbai, Antwerp and London, as well as an office and distribution facility in Singapore and China.

Looking to the future, the Petrochem empire is raking in over a billion dollars a year in revenue and Mehta hopes it can achieve $3bn by 2015.