INDIA: One of India's wealthiest and close knit business families is planning legal action to recover the vast fortune one of its members bequeathed in her will to an accountant who is no relation.
Basant Kumar Birla, Tai pan of the Birla clan with varied business interests in cars, cement, automobiles, software, electronics and jute yesterday said the family was stunned to learn that his cousin's widow had left her inherited business empire and real estate reportedly worth 50 billion rupees (€8.8 bn) to her low-key, but financial savvy chartered accountant, Rajendra S. Lodha.
Mrs Priyamvada Birla, a widow, who died last week at the age of 76, had no children. Her husband, Madhav Prasad Birla had died in 1990 leaving her profitable industries like chemicals and optic fibre cables in addition to schools and hospitals.
Mrs Birla also owned prime real estate in the eastern port city of Calcutta from where the Birla Empire had headquarters for decades and from where it grew through the 20th century, spreading its businesses and manufacturing interests across the country.
"The will has shocked us. We are united and will take legal action and go to court to fight this. How can assets and money be given to someone who is an outsider?" a visibly moved Basant Kumar Birla said in Calcutta.
Though the Birla empire has been divided between its various scions, all senior family members have come together, determined to prevent Mr Lodha, the beneficiary accountant from en-cashing the will.
Mr Lodha, whose chartered accountancy firm is also based in Calcutta, was not available for comment soon after the will that was reportedly a simple three to four line declaration, was made public.
India's financial papers that gleefully seized upon the Birla will issue, said Lodha was no "pushover" and a veteran of numerous successful corporate skirmishes and boardroom showdowns.
"If this battle drags to court, as it seems it certainly will, it will be a fight worth seeing from a distance " the Economic Times declared.
The paper speculated that on the face of it, Mr Lodha appeared no match for the collective might of the Birla family. But, it added, that the accountant had a formidable weapon in his armory - insider knowledge of the Birla empire as his firm had been one of the family auditors for years.
