Vijaypat Singhania, Raymond Group founder, is ‘deeply disappointed’ to witness his son Gautam Singhania ‘breaking up’ the corporate and lamented his ‘stupid mistake’ of ‘giving away everything’ to his son. The 85-year-old former Raymond Chairman’s assertion comes at a time when Gautam is in the midst of a bitter marital spat with Nawaz Modi, his spouse of 32 years, who has demanded 75 p.c of his fortune as a part of the divorce settlement.

In an interview with Business Today, the retired industrialist, who constructed Raymond from a small cloth firm right into a world-renowned model, stated seeing his son dismantle the corporate is heart-wrenching.

“He’s (Gautam Singhania) breaking apart Raymond. It breaks my coronary heart. But I don’t intervene. I don’t inform him what he ought to do. He has to stay. I’ve lived my life. I’ve perhaps 2-3 years left,” Vijaypat said.

Estranged Father-Son Relationship

A once cherished father-son relationship between Vijaypat Singhania and Gautam itself now stands embroiled in a bitter family feud. Vijaypat thought he was keeping his billion-dollar Indian textile empire in the family when he gifted control of the Raymond Group to his son Gautam in 2015.

But their relationship has disintegrated spectacularly since, with the father accusing the son of cheating him out of a exclusive apartment and of unceremoniously kicking him out of the company offices.

Vijaypat alleged the Raymond boss ‘backed out’ after promising to give him some parts of the company and, cautioned parents about “giving everything” to their youngsters.

Vijaypat had accused Gautam of driving him out of his household property in south Mumbai’s JK House in 2017. As per a household settlement, Vijaypat, together with another members of his household, have been designated to obtain particular person duplexes within the family-owned JK House.

He was additionally eliminated as Raymond’s Chairman Emeritus in 2018.

“I’ve no enterprise. He had agreed to present me some components of the corporate, however after all, he backed out. So I’ve nothing else. I gave him every little thing. By mistake, I used to be left with some cash on which I’m surviving at the moment. Otherwise, I might have been on the highway…Parents ought to assume very rigorously earlier than they provide away every little thing to their youngsters,” he stated, in response to BT report.

Bitter Divorce Battle

Speaking about his son’s separation from his estranged wife, Nawaz Modi, Vijaypat said he never hoped to see such situation in his own family. Earlier this month, Modi had claimed that Gautam did not let her enter the house during Diwali celebrations, a video of which had gone viral on social media.

“It’s difficult to describe what one goes through when you see your own family going to this kind of stress. I can only pray to God. He helps to solve these issues,” he stated.

However, the octogenarian clarified that it isn’t his “enterprise to intervene in what two grown-up individuals are more likely to undergo”.

On November 13, Gautam announced his separation from Modi, after which she reportedly sought 75 per cent of Raymond boss’s Rs 11,000 crore wealth.

Addressing Modi’s demand, Vijaypat noted that under the Hindu Marriage Act, 50 per cent of the husband’s holding automatically goes to the wife in a case of separation.

“She may not need to fight for it. A very simple lawyer can get her that under the Hindu Marriage Act,” he stated asserting that his son would by no means agree to present her 75 per cent of his wealth, so as to safe the monetary well-being of their two daughters, Niharika and Nisa.

“Why is she preventing for 75 per cent? Gautam isn’t going to present in, as a result of his motto is – purchase everyone and purchase every little thing. That’s what he did with me. I didn’t have that form of cash left to battle him. He purchased every little thing. He’ll purchase every little thing. By preventing like this, I don’t assume she’ll get a lot. Unless she has, perhaps, an individual like Harish Salve, Mukul Rohatgi, Kapil Sibal.” the former industrialist told BT.

Impact of Company Reputation

When asked about potential negative impact of the dispute on Raymond’s reputation, Vijaypat said that depends on how shareholders, bankers, and stakeholders perceive the situation.

“Raymond has a very large number of mature, logical shareholders. They can think for themselves. If they see something bad, they react quickly,” he stated.

“Raymond’s title will in the end depend upon how a bigger variety of shareholders, bankers, patrons, sellers have a look at it. There are two issues in it. One is how they see the difficulty itself and the way it will have an effect on them and they’re going to additionally have a look at Raymond’s efficiency and they don’t seem to be essentially the identical. So, I feel it’s a really tough query to reply whether or not it should have an effect on the Raymond title. We took a very long time to construct it. It was a really small firm making blankets after we purchased after which I took over. Today, it has worldwide fame,” he added.