Amid the ongoing family feud between billionaire businessman Gautam Singhania and his estranged wife Nawaz Modi, Singhania’s father Vijaypat Singhania finally broke his silence on Thursday (November 23) and said that Raymond’s name will "ultimately depend on how shareholders, bankers look at it".
"Raymond has a very large number of mature, logical shareholders. They can think for themselves. If they see something bad, they react quickly," Vijaypat Singhania said in an interview.
It is to be noted that Gautam Singhania’s estranged wife Nawaz Modi has demanded 75% of billionaire businessman’s USD 1.4 billion wealth as part of settlement. Nawaz Modi’s demand directly affected Raymond's share price as the company’s stock fell 8% in the last five trading session.
When asked if the ongoing feud between Gautam Singhania and Nawaz Modi will affect the shareholders, Vijaypat said, "Raymond's name will ultimately depend on how a larger number of shareholders, bankers, buyers, sellers look at it. There are two things in it. One is how they see the issue itself and how it will affect them and they will also look at Raymond's performance and they are not necessarily the same. So, I think it's a very difficult question to answer whether it will affect the Raymond name. We took a long time in building it. It was a very small company making blankets when we bought and then I took over. Today, it has worldwide fame."
"He's (Gautam) breaking up Raymond. It breaks my heart. But I don't interfere. I don't tell him what he should do. He has to live. I have lived my life. I have maybe 2-3 years left. He has many more, so he must make his own goal," he added.
Talking about Nawaz Modi's reported demand of 75% of Gautam Singhania’s wealth, Vijaypat, 85, said, "Under the Hindu Marriage Act as I know, 50% of the husband's holding automatically goes to the wife in a separation. A very simple lawyer can get her that under the Hindu Marriage Act. Why is she fighting for 75%? Gautam is never going to give in because his motto is to buy everybody and buy everything. That's what he did with me. I didn't have that kind of money left to fight him. He bought everything. He'll buy everything. By fighting like this, I don't think she'll get much," he said.
