In March this year, Aadujeevitham, a movie that captured the trials and tribulations of a Malayali immigrant labourer in Saudi Arabia, was released worldwide. Among the co-producers of the film, which made over Rs 150 crore, was Kerala businessman in Kuwait K G Abraham. Months later, Abraham is in news again — most of the 45 Indians, including 24 from Kerala, who died in Wednesday’s fire at an apartment building in Kuwait are employees of a firm where he is partner and managing director. The firm, NBTC, was established in 1977 and now operates across Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. It provides services linked to engineering and construction, logistics, hotel and retailing. Apart from NBTC, Abraham heads K G Group, which co-produced Aadujeevitham, or Goat Life in English. From Pathanamthitta to Kuwait Hailing from Niranam in central Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district, Abraham is among a group of businessmen from the state who flourished in the oil-rich Middle East. The third of seven children from a farmer’s family, Kattunilath Geevarghese Abraham flew to Kuwait in 1976, when he was 22. He had with him a diploma in civil engineering, and a hunger to make it big. He joined a construction company for a monthly salary of 60 dinars. Seven years later, with a capital of 4,000 dinars, Abraham became a partner in NBTC, or Naser Mohamed Al-Baddah & Partner Trading and Contracting Company, and started taking up minor civil construction work in Kuwait. The Kuwait war of 1990 was a turning point in his life. When the war began that August, Abraham was on vacation in Kerala. In May 1991, a month after it ended, he returned to Kuwait and invested in the country’s revival in the post-war days. NBTC grew beyond Kuwait and expanded its operations into oil and gas, among other sectors. Having started with 90 workers, it became a major employer in the Middle East, with a staff strength of 15,000. Back in Kerala, Abraham is a film producer and a stakeholder in the hospitality sector, with a five-star property in Kochi, the Crowne Plaza. In 2007, he courted controversy that led to the resignation of the then public works minister T U Kuruvila from the Left cabinet. Kuruvila had allegedly tried to sell 50 acres of revenue waste land in the high ranges of Idukki to Abraham. Abraham paid an advance of Rs 7 crore to Kuruvila, but backed out from the deal after suspecting fraud. When Kuruvila allegedly refused to return the money, Abraham took up the matter with the government, which probed the matter leading to Kuruvila’s exit. Abraham, known to be a philanthropist, had also locked horns with the current LDF regime, saying that the 2018 flood relief contributions, mobilised from expatriates, did not reach those eligible. In 2023, when the government proposed a new tax on houses that are vacant, Abraham had criticised the government, saying he will stop the practice of giving contributions to politicians.
