Putting a price to ultra-rich family feuds

Mega-mansions, business jets, stake in companies and globe-toting — wealth is wow! But it can also drive in distrust and ugly litigations within the family. And sometimes, we can just put a price-tag to it. Here are some of the recent big bad family fall outs that left corporate India guessing...

Ambanis’ great divide

At stake: Rs 90,000 crore empire

Nothing can be bigger than the property feud between the India’s richest — Mukesh Ambani and his brother Anil Ambani. The dispute was settled after their mother intervened and arranged a de-merger. In 2005, following the split, Mukesh got Reliance Industries and the petrochemicals business, while Anil got Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital. While business feud continued and suits stretching to Rs 10,000 crore filed between the duo, the brothers are rarely seen speaking to each other.

Towering trouble for Raheja heirs

At stake: Rs 11,000 crore

Three months after real estate tycoon Gopal Raheja’s demise, the battle for his Rs 11,000 crore estate reached the Bombay High Court, with his two daughters and estranged son citing two different Wills, one drawn up in 2012 and the other five years earlier. In a revised will, Gopal Raheja had divided his stake in K Raheja Group equally between daughters Sonali and Sabita, leaving nothing for son Sandeep.

Hiranandani’s sibling rivalry

At stake: Rs 1,400 crore

Construction magnate Niranjan Hiranandani’s  daughter Priya Hirandanis-Vandrevala sought arbitration in 2009, claiming that her father and brother violated a business association agreement involving commercial rights to real estate projects. She asked for compensation of approximately Rs 1,400 crore, thereby raising business split speculations. The father and brother made a counter claim that the fight caused them to lose out on business opportunities.

Elder Pharma’s bitter pill

At stake: Rs 1,800 crore

The family of Elder Pharmaceuticals founder Jagdish Saxena, who died in 2013, has been embroiled in a battle for control of his personal and business assets. The dispute has pitched Anuj Saxena, the younger son who heads Elder Healthcare against the rest of the family — Alok Saxena, the older son, who is chairman and MD of Elder Pharmaceuticals, their mother Sneh and their sister Shalini.

Painting trouble for Mafatlals

At stake: Paintings worth Rs 50 crore

The Mafatlal family is no strangers to the courtroom. Sheetal Mafatlal, estranged wife of industrialist Atulya Mafatlal, had a theft complaint lodged against her (in 2011) by the Mafatlal family for several missing paintings, then valued at Rs 50 crore. After the dispute was resolved, the Bombay High Court allowed Sheetal to retain the paintings she was accused of stealing.

Singhania’s inheritance of loss

At stake: Unassessed

The four children of Vijaypath Singhania’s (chairman emeritus of Raymond Ltd) elder son Madhupati Singhania recently filed a case in the Bombay High Court challenging a ‘family settlement’ their parents and grandfather entered into in 1998, whereby their parents had given up theirs as well as their children’s rights over the ancestral properties. Singhania’s grand children sought their claim on the Raymond brand, ancestral properties, real estate and other movable and immovable assets of the group. 

# 'At stake' figures are estimated approximations, may not be accurate.

Historic handshakes, famous hugs

The Obama-Castro Kodak moment joins a legion of other symbolic meetings 

Cuba is only 90 miles from Florida, USA. But for almost half a century, the distance between the two countries appeared a lot more. Driven by a policy rooted in the Cold War, the US severed all diplomatic ties with Cuba for more than 50 years. But that changed on March 2016, when US President Barack Obama stepped out of a two-hour meeting with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro in Havana. The cordial handshake that followed was historic – symbolic of crashing barriers and an improved economic tie between the two neighbours. It wasn’t the first of its kind. Check out some other momentous handshakes and embraces that were talked about globally as well as locally: [Updated on July 2018]

Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis

February 2016

“Finally!” That was the word with which Pope Francis gave Patriarch Kirill a hug, marking the first encounter in history between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch in the nearly thousand years since Eastern Orthodoxy split with Rome. The two met in a private room in Cuba’s Jose Marti airport, bridging a schism over a three-hour meeting. “We are brothers,” Pope Francis added.

Gerald Levin and Stephen Case

January 2000

When the AOL-Time Warner merger was announced, the combined companies boasted a market cap of $350 billion. The high-five between Gerald Levin of Time Warner and Stephen Case of America Online marked the biggest merger and acquisitions of all time, pegged at $165 billion. Years later, after the deal failed, former Time Warner chief Jeffrey Bewkes reportedly called it “the biggest mistake in corporate history”.

 

Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif

December 2015

The most surprising and talked about guest at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing in ceremony in May 2014 was his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. But it was Modi’s surprise visit to Lahore a year later, on December 25, where the duo’s hugs and handshakes were seen as a significant sign of thawing in the icy relationship between the two neighbours. The media dubbed the stopover, “A Christmas miracle”.

Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan 

November 2015

The Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan feud of 2008 was one of Bollywood’s biggest spats… until it ended over a quick hug at politician Baba Siddique’s Eid party in 2014. The frozen vibes began thawing and on his 50th birthday in November last year, Shah Rukh shared the image of the duo in a thick embrace, wrestler-style. The picture broke the internet, with 18,000 retweets and 33,000 favourites. 

Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat

September 1993

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and

Palestinian Liberation Organisation Chairman Yasser Arafat signed
the Oslo Accords at the South Lawn of the White House. Standing in between the two men who had been bitter enemies for decades, President Bill Clinton coaxed Rabin and Arafat for a symbolic handshake, the men’s first. Unfortunately, the Oslo Accords failed to live up to the promise of that sun-soaked handshake.

Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materazzi

December 2010

French footballer Zinedine Zidane head butted Marco Materazzi of Italy for allegedly hurling spiteful words at the 2006 World Cup final. It was the biggest Football World Cup controversy ever. It took four long years before the duo reconciled. The two reportedly hugged and made up during an accidental meeting in the lobby of a Milan hotel. Because it was impromptu, the moment was never captured.

Arvind Kejriwal and Lalu Prasad Yadav

November 2015

Kejriwal and Yadav hugging each other at the swearing-in of Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister sparked controversy. Many have interpreted the hug as an act of compromise on the part of Kejriwal and a betrayal of the AAP’s principled stand against corruption. Kejriwal later explained that it was Lalu who “pulled and hugged” him, and that he was still opposed to Lalu’s “record of corruption” and “dynasty politics”.

 

Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in

April 27, 2018

The famous handshake, followed by photo-op and meeting between North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in (across the Military Demarcation Line that divides the two Koreas) was the result of a remarkable thaw on the peninsula sparked by the Winter Olympics earlier in the year. The two countries pledged to work for ‘complete denuclearisation’ of the Korean peninsula.

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un

June 11, 2018

Donald Trump’s ‘alpha male’ handshake with Kim Jong Un in Singapore marked the first meeting ever between a sitting US president and the leader of North Korea. With cameras of the world’s press trained on them, Trump and Kim displayed an initial atmosphere of bonhomie that’s marked as a major diplomatic breakthrough.