Patch-Up At Pure Drinks, Ajit Gets Seat On Hotel Unit Board

Ajit Singh, managing director of Pure Drinks (New Delhi) Ltd and manufacturer of the Campa range of soft drinks, is set to join the board of directors of CJ International Hotel Ltd, the company that owns and operates New Delhis Le Meridien Hotel.

Under the patch-up agreement worked out between him and his once-estranged aunt Harjit Kaur (Mrs Charanjeet Singh, late brother of Ajit Singhs father Daljit Singh), Kaur will, in return, play a more active role in the soft drinks operations of the Pure Drinks group henceforth.

The two, who together, along with other family members, control over 70 per cent of the equity in Pure Drinks, against around 18 per cent held by Ajit Singhs estranged brother Satwant Singh, have also decided to marginalise Satwant from the decision making process in the company.

In an exclusive interview to Business Standard, Harjit Kaur, chairman and managing director of CJ International, said: Ajit Singh will rejoin as director on the board of Meridien whenever the next annual general meeting of the company is held. Ajit Singh had retired by rotation from the board in December 1993, while brother Satwant was never part of the hotel operations. Kaur, who is on the board of directors of all the group companies, and chairperson on some, stated that she would from now on take a more active interest in all the operations of the group, including that of soft-drinks.

Whenever Ajit needs me I am there. My aim is to revive the group, the company that was built by my father-in-law, and my husband and brother-in-law. I will not let it go down, she said.

Commenting on the patch-up bid between her and nephew Ajit Singh, she said that talks were going on between the two for the last three to four months. These were initiated after Ajit Singh fell out with brother Satwant Singh on the issue of payment of overdues to Cadbury Schweppes for bottling the multinationals brands in Delhi and in some other territories in the north.