- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
The separation of Gautam and Modi has seen an erosion of the company’s market capitalisation worth Rs 1,500 crore (£143.6 million).
By: Shubham Ghosh
FOR Raymond patriarch Vijaypat Singhania, engaging in daring adventures such as travelling in a hot balloon to set a world record at 67 or doing a solo flight in a microlight aircraft from the UK to India seem to be easier than dealing with family disputes.
The former chairman of one of India’s biggest clothing brands, recently expressed deep shock over his younger son Gautam Singhania’s “breaking up” the company that he himself had built over the years. Gautam is the chairman and managing director of the company who helped the business grow after taking up the reins in the late 1990s and 2000s.
Speaking with Business Today exclusively, the 85-year-old said while it devastates him to see how the recent developments are affecting the company, he still chooses not to interfere as he feels the latter has to live his life while he himself has almost lived his.
Singhania, who stepped down as the chairman of Raymond in 2015, also spoke about the separation of Gautam and his wife Nawaz Modi saying it is difficult to express one’s feeling after seeing such things and he prays to God for a solution. But Singhania also has it clear in his mind that it is not his business to intervene in the matters of two grown-up individuals.
According to him, the likely impact of the dispute on Raymond’s reputation depends on the perception of the shareholders, bankers and stakeholders.
“Raymond has a very large number of mature, logical shareholders. They can think for themselves. If they see something bad, they react quickly,” the former sheriff of the Indian city of Mumbai, said in the interview.
“Raymond’s name will ultimately depend on how a larger number of shareholders, bankers, buyers, sellers look at it. There are two things in it. One is how they see the issue itself and how it will affect them and they will also look at Raymond’s performance and they are not necessarily the same. So, I think it’s a very difficult question to answer whether it will affect the Raymond name. We took a long time to build it. It was a very small company making blankets when we bought and then I took over. Today, it has worldwide fame,” he was quoted as saying.
The family dispute has taken a toll on Raymond, one of the world’s largest producers of suit fabric. The separation of Gautam and Modi has seen an erosion of the company’s market capitalisation worth Rs 1,500 crore (£143.6 million). The company saw a slump for a week due to uncertainty among the investors. The shares went down on Wednesday (22), set for the steepest drop since October 25, Bloomberg reported. The stock fell 12 per cent since November 13 when Gautam announced separation from his wife of 32 years.
“Uncertainty around the separation is weighing on the stock. Nobody knows what kind of impact it will have on the company,” said Varun Singh, an analyst at ICICI Securities Ltd was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
“Since the wife is a board member, this has become a corporate governance issue.”
On Monday (20), the Economic Times reported citing informed sources that Modi has sought 75 per cent of Singhania’s $1.4 billion fortune as part of a settlement. In the interview with Business Today, Singhania said his son would never agree to Modi’s demand to secure their two daughters — Niharika and Nisa — financially.
“Under the Hindu Marriage Act, as I know, 50 per cent of the husband’s holding automatically goes to the wife in a separation. A very simple lawyer can get her that under the Hindu Marriage Act. Why is she fighting for 75 per cent? Gautam is never going to give in because his motto is to buy everybody and buy everything,” Singhania said in the interview.
“That’s what he did with me. I didn’t have that kind of money left to fight him. He bought everything. He’ll buy everything. By fighting like this, I don’t think she’ll get much,” he added.
Singhania himself had also faced a similar rift with his son after he had handed over the responsibilities to him.
They had found themselves in disagreement over various issues, particularly involving property matters. The matter turned worse in 2017 when Singhania claimed that Raymond had not given a duplex in JK House, a multi-storey building located in South Mumbai.
