A white knight galvanises Eveready as company fights mounting debt

The Burmans of Dabur become the biggest shareholder in India's largest dry cell battery maker as the Kolkata-based promoters struggle to ring-fence their tea-to-engineering group

Brij Mohan Khaitan stepped into the elite world of tea as a white knight when in 1961, a Marwari businessman, B Bajoria, had cornered a 25 per cent stake in Bishnauth, part of one of India’s top managing agency firms, Williamson  Magor & Company. The shareholding was just a per cent short of the 26 per cent promoter holding.

A rattled Richard Magor — then at the helm — made an offer to Khaitan, who used to supply packaging materials and fertilisers to the company, to become a partner. The rest is history — Khaitan not only made it to