Gave binding offer to sell 25% of my shares to mother, says Samir Modi

One member of each branch will have a permanent position in all the companies till they have been sold. My father wanted equality and fairness among the four of us, Samir said

K K Modi Group Chairperson Bina Modi is locked in a battle with sons, Samir and Lalit, over control of four key firms — Godfrey Phillips India (GPI), Indofil, Modicare, and Colorbar.The battle escalated last week with Samir filing a first information report (FIR), blaming his mother and the board for orchestrating an assault on him and not allowing entry into an audit committee meeting, to which he was invited. GPI retorted, saying he was not a member of the audit committee but tried to enter forcefully. GPI Executive Director SAMIR MODI, in an interview with Surajeet Das Gupta in New Delhi, talks about what they are seeking to settle the issues. Edited excerpts:
 

What is the fight with your mother about and what is your demand?
 

I have no idea what the fight is about. I am willing to do everything that is legal to implement my father’s (K K Modi’s) trust deed. He bequeathed to us a legacy. I appeal to my mother to help us deliver on it in accordance with my father’s wishes as specified in the trust deed.
 

What does the trust deed say?
 

My father left us clear directions on how to deal with his legacy. My mother was tasked with building a consensus between us — three children — failing which to sell the businesses and divide the proceeds equally. Each of us has a 25 per cent share in the trust.
 

So what do you plan to do to settle this issue? Have you given any offer to your mother?
 

As there is no consensus among the four family members, Lalit and I have been trying to convince our mother on implementing the deed of trust valued by the investment banker but have failed to do so. I have made a binding offer to our mother and have tried to reach out to her several times to re-establish our relationship but have not found any inclination from her side to do so.

Under the deed of trust, my mother became managing trustee after my father’s death (in 2019).

Her first role was to get a unanimous consensus to run all the businesses and elect one member as the leader unanimously. In case there was no unanimous consensus, sell all the businesses in the stipulated time of one year after one month of my father’s death or divide them equally between the four of us.

One member of each branch will have a permanent position in all the companies till they have been sold. My father wanted equality and fairness among the four of us.
 

But how were the companies going to be valued?

It was through any of the top five financial auditors in India and getting them to value all the group businesses. Then invite bids from parties including the four members of our family, individually or jointly.

If more than one of us want to have the same business then the bidding process will continue for up to 60 days until one of the four emerges as the highest bidder.

We all signed the KK Modi family deed of trust in 2009 in good faith so that after my father each of us would be fairly treated.

We all relinquished our shares in favour of the trust since we wanted to have a peaceful and amicable future together without any dispute, thus keeping the entire family together. This was my father’s primary objective.

So is this battle helping in getting a better valuation?

I am not a fighter. I have two jobs: Keep my father’s legacy alive and intact and build on it. For me, legacy means “family first, business second”, and both must go hand in hand.