From a £15,000 Bank Loan to a $10 Billion Energy Empire: The Story of Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai and his wife Arani Kumar Soosaipillai

In 1999, Sanjeev Kumar Soosaipillai and his wife Arani Kumar Soosaipillai walked into an HSBC branch and persuaded a local manager to lend them £15,000 — the maximum the manager could approve without escalating to a higher authority. The projections Sanjeev presented to secure the loan were, by his own admission, largely improvised. “I don’t know what he saw in us,” he has since recalled. What the bank manager saw, it turned out, was the beginning of what would become the Prax Group, a fully integrated British energy company that would reach $10 billion in annual revenues and employ 1,450 people at its peak.

Two Sri Lankan Refugees, One University, One Vision

Sanjeev Soosaipillai arrived in Britain at the age of 17, having fled Sri Lanka’s civil war. He was working in his uncle’s corner shop within a day of landing. Arani Soosaipillai had left Sri Lanka with her family at age 12, also as a consequence of the conflict. The two met while studying Accounting and Finance at the University of Kent — a shared academic background that would later prove foundational to how they structured and scaled their business.

To fund his studies, Sanjeev ran two concurrent side ventures: importing shirts from Sri Lanka and sourcing cars from Japan. The car trade required him to take out a student loan and, by his own account, to persuade Arani to contribute funds from her own loan as well. The exposure to fuel retail came through more direct channels. Sanjeev worked weekend cashier shifts at a filling station during his school years in the UK, while Arani’s father operated petrol stations of his own — sites that Sanjeev frequently managed when her parents were away.

The Classic Petrol Station in St Albans

The opportunity that launched the business came through an introduction to a filling station owner in Hertfordshire who was approaching retirement. Sanjeev and Arani Soosaipillai lacked the capital to buy the site outright, but the owner agreed to lease it to them instead. The site — the Classic Petrol Station in St Albans — required no upfront premium under the leasehold arrangement, only inventory at cost and an advance on quarterly rent.

Working capital remained a problem. The £15,000 HSBC loan fell short of what the business needed, and the couple maxed out their credit cards and remortgaged the flat they owned together. “We needed a lot of money to kick it off, and we went to Kingdom Come to do it,” Sanjeev has said. “We put everything we had into starting the business.”

The operation launched in 1999 as a two-person partnership. Sanjeev had resigned from his previous employment about a month before opening; Arani continued working full-time elsewhere and returned home each evening to manage the accounts. Their main fuel supplier, Elf Oil UK, extended 10-day credit terms, and because most sales were settled in cash or by card, the business generated positive liquidity early on.

Systematic Expansion, Sustained by Personal Liability

State Oil Limited was incorporated in 2000 with a share capital of £2. Within a year, additional sites at Nutley, Great Yarmouth, Tunbridge Wells, and Golding Barn had been acquired, funded through retained earnings, HSBC mortgages, and personal loans. A charge was placed over Arani’s parents’ house in 2003 to support lease commitments. The home of relatives with whom Sanjeev had lived during his school years in Britain was remortgaged in 2007 to provide further capital.

The company’s early headquarters was a serviced office in Weybridge — chosen, according to Sanjeev, because it sat roughly midway between where he and Arani each worked at the time. The unit was so cramped that Don Camillo, a former Managing Director at the company, referred to it as “the broom cupboard.” Four desks were squeezed into the space.

Into Wholesale, Then International Trading

Revenues during the retail phase reached £3.8 million by 2002. That year, the business moved into wholesale fuel distribution through a subsidiary, Prax Petroleum Limited. Partnerships with Tramp Oil and Marine Limited and Cockett Marine Oil Limited provided consignment structures and financing that opened international markets. Revenues grew to £75.8 million by 2007 and £420 million by 2011.

Full trading independence arrived in 2012, when bilateral credit lines from Société Générale, Natixis, and BCGE enabled the company to purchase fuel cargoes directly, without reliance on supplier financing. By the time Prax Group marked its 25th anniversary in September 2024, it held gross assets of $2.3 billion and net assets of $604 million, operating across crude oil supply, storage, refining, and distribution.

A Partnership at the Centre of Everything

Sanjeev Soosaipillai served as Chairman and Chief Executive; Arani Soosaipillai held the role of Chief Human Resources and Corporate Officer. The division of responsibilities reflected the complementary roles they had occupied since the business began — Sanjeev driving commercial strategy, Arani managing the organisational and financial foundations that made growth possible.

“Arani has been the cornerstone, keeping the whole show on the road,” Sanjeev has said. “She provided the support and strength which has enabled me to be so dedicated to the business.”

What the story of Sanjeev and Arani Soosaipillai ultimately illustrates is how disciplined cash management, an appetite for personal financial risk, and a willingness to build incrementally through partnerships converted a leased petrol station in Hertfordshire into one of Britain’s largest independent energy businesses — funded, at the start, by a bank manager who took a chance on a set of figures that were largely made up.

Additional profiles: Sanjeev on F6S, Sanjeev on Crunchbase, Arani on Featured, Arani on Crunchbase.