The Battle of Inheritance of the Billionaire puts the spotlights of the messy family of India’s family

The sudden death of an Indian tycoon in June sparked a fierce battle for her inheritance in an Indian automotive giant.

The 53 -year -old Sunjay Kapur suffered a heart attack on June 12 while playing Polo in Surrey in the UK. He was the successor to Sona Comstar, a $ 3.6 billion business empire ($ 2.7 billion), which he inherited from his father. The company, among the best manufacturers of automotive components in India, has a global imprint with 10 plants, distributed in India, China, Mexico and the United States.

Polo’s enthusiast, Kapur moved to the elite social circles of the Indian capital Delhi and, according to reports, shared a friendship with Prince William. He was married three times – first to the designer Nandita Makhtani, then until the 90s of Bollywood Charisma Kapur, before marrying Priy Sahdev, a former model and entrepreneur, in 2017.

But weeks after his death, the question of inheritance was made by Kapour and his family the object of media speculation.

At the center of it is the mother of Kapour Rani Kapour, a former chairman of Sona Comstar.

On July 24, Rani Kapur sent a letter to the Sona Comstar Council, raising questions about the death and appointments of his son made by the company afterwards.

In the letter that the BBC has seen, she claims that Kapour’s death was under “highly suspicious and unexplained circumstances.”

The Suri Corrona service told the BBC that after his death, he had determined that Kapoor had died for natural reasons. “The investigation is closed,” the office said.

Rani Kapur also claims that he was forced to sign key documents while he was under mental and emotional distress from his son’s death.

“It is a pity that while the family and I are still in mourning, some people have chosen this as an appropriate moment to combat control and usurp the family heritage,” she wrote.

She also asked the Sona Comstar board to postpone his annual General Assembly (AGM) – which was set for July 25 – to decide for a new director to be a family representative.

Rani Kapur did not specify who was referring to “some people”, but the next day Sona Comstar held AGM the next day and appointed Sunjay Priya’s wife as a non -enforcement director.

In her letter, Rani Kapur claims that she is the only beneficiary of her late husband’s estate in a will in 2015, which includes a majority stake in Sona Group, including Sona Comstar.

The company categorically denied Rani Kapor’s claims and said she had no “no role, direct or indirect, in the Sona Comstar since at least 2019”.

The Council also stated that there was no coercion to postpone its notice and that AGM was conducted “in full compliance with the law”. The company issued a legal notice to Rani Kapour, asking her to stop distributing “fake, malicious and harmful” statements.

BBC contacted Sona Comstar, Rani Kapur and Priya Sachdev with questions.

Public shareholders, including banks, mutual funds and financial institutions, own 71.98% of Sona Comstar, which is listed on Indian exchanges such as Sona BLW.

The remaining 28.02% are kept by promoters through a company called Aureus Investments PVT Ltd.

According to the company’s submission, Sunjay Kapur is the only beneficiary of RK Family Trust, which controls the participation of promoters in Sona Comstar via Aureus Investments.

“Considering the structure of the company, at that moment, Rani Kapoor is not distinguished as a registered shareholder, so there will be no voice rights. But there is a matter of investment in RK Family and investment in Aureus. In fact, we cannot know if Rani has a direct interest there until the agreement is disclosed.”

The hostility of the Kapur family is not an isolated case.

About 90% of the listed companies in India are controlled by the family, but only 63% have an official inheritance plan, according to a PWC study.

Cavil Ramachandran of the Indian Business School says that most Indian family companies work with “considerable ambiguity about specifics.”

“One such (area) is who owns how much and who inherits and when,” he adds.

Experts say that the participation of the family without meritocracy and the lack of official agreements complicate the issues.

“Disputes arise when the patriarch (or even before) ends, both in terms of property and management, and there will be too much water under the bridge under the bridge to be resolved in terms of problems,” said Katan Dalal, who advises several Indian business families on ownership structures.

India Inc. has been strewn with bitter inheritance battles that many times grab titles.

Mukesh Ambani, the most rich man in Asia, was once involved in many public struggle with his younger brother for the scattered empire to read after their father Dhirubhai Ambani died in 2002 without leaving a will. It was their mother Kokilaben that made peace years later.

Most recently, family feuds broke out at Raymond Group, the most famous textile company in India and among the Loda brothers, whose company built the Trump Tower in Mumbai.

All this often comes with a big expense for Indian shareholders.

“Anyone who has held endless control in their hands has been injured. After all, it is the company that suffers, the share prices are reducing and (so) perceiving how the company will handle the company,” says Sandip Nerlek, founder and managing director of the company planning the inheritance.

But some families are now bitten, twice shy.

The Bajai family, one of the largest conglomerates in the country, was confronted with internal inheritance disputes until a court had intervened in the 2000s to resolve the dispute.

The Patriarch outlines a plan to inherit the group, dividing the responsibilities between his sons and his cousin. According to the company’s statement, the group now works through consensus through Family Council.

Last year, one of the oldest business houses in India, the Estate-Astation GODREJ group, announced an uncharacteristic friendly separation of their multimillion business.

“Families need to work on planning inheritance with management structures such as a good advice that has teeth. They must be given some control so that the business can grow long -term. You also have to allow the next generation to take the leader well and the patriarch has to take the time to maintain them so that family problems do not occur.”

Mukesh Ambani likes seem to have accepted this seriously started raising his three children Well in advance.

Ramachandran says inheritance is not something that can be decided “overnight”.

“Preparation of both the family and the operational team during a planned transitional period is crucial.

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