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Bajaj feud spills over to trusts

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Dev ChatterjeeKausik Datta Mumbai
Last Updated : Feb 05 2013 | 12:35 AM IST
The Bajaj family feud over asset division has now engulfed the group's public charitable organisations, which control investments worth Rs 2,800 crore across various group companies.
 
Shishir Bajaj, the estranged brother of group patriarch Rahul Bajaj, and his son Kushagra have sought a 25 per cent share in the assets controlled by these trusts.
 
The claim was overruled by Niraj Bajaj who controls these institutions as chairman and is aligned with his cousin Rahul Bajaj. Other members of the camp are Madhur and Shekhar Bajaj, also cousins.
 
"We have total control of the charitable institutions," a family member close to the Rahul Bajaj faction said. The Shishir Bajaj faction declined to comment.
 
An eight-fold jump in Bajaj group shares in five years has seen the value of the assets held by these trusts grow more than five times. The assets were worth just Rs 500 crore when the dispute between the brothers erupted in 2002.
 
"The success of our companies has resulted in the current impasse," a Rahul Bajaj family source said.
 
The control of the trusts assumes significance as these tax-saving entities hold shares in almost all Bajaj group companies.
 
"There is no question of the division of these assets. The talk of dividing assets from these trusts is illegal, unethical and shows the low corporate governance standards of those demanding it," sources in the Rahul camp said.
 
According to the formula signed on November 9, 2005, the Rahul Bajaj faction claims that they are supposed to give only Rs 170 crore worth of assets from their personal holdings to Shishir and Kushagra as net compensation.
 
The Rahul Bajaj camp says Shishir and Kushagra Bajaj had agreed to the November 2005 formula for division of assets, from which the trusts were excluded, and even reached an agreement to this effect.
 
Sources in the Shishir Bajaj camp denied this charge and blame the other side for the impasse.
 
The Rahul Bajaj faction, however, moved the Bombay High Court against Shishir and Kushagra Bajaj in December 2006 seeking damages worth Rs 600 crore for reneging on the agreement.
 
CHARITY DOESN'T BEGIN AT HOME
 
  • Bajaj charitable trusts control assets worth Rs 2,800 crore
  • Shishir/Kushagra seek 25 per cent share in trust assets
  • Rahul Bajaj camp controls all trusts
  • Rahul camp says no question of any asset division
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    First Published: Mar 16 2007 | 12:00 AM IST

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