Billionaire Hinduja brothers to end their long family dispute, claims report

The conglomerate Hinduja Group’s co-chairman Gopichand Hinduja, along with Prakash, Srichand, and Ashok - also known as the billionaire Hinduja family brothers - have called a truce and decided to end the family dispute on Friday. The conflict among the billionaire brothers was because of a pact signed by them in 2014 that said that 'everything belongs to everyone and nothing belongs to anyone', revealed a Bloomberg report.

As per the report, Srichand Hinduja's children claimed that their family was being sidelined in the group's businesses and had challenged the letter which was the basis of succession planning. The root of this rift lies in 2014 when the brothers signed a letter that assets held by one brother belonged to all. The three younger brothers allegedly tried to use the 2014 letter to take control of Hinduja Bank (present in Switzerland), which was in Srichands sole name, resulting in a protracted legal battle.

Reportedly, Srichand Hinduja's children complained that their family was being excluded from the Hinduja group's business and challenged the letter which served as the foundation for succession planning, as per Bloomberg.

Among the four billionaire Hinduja family brothers, Gopichand and Srichand live in London, Prakash is in Monaco while Ashok, the youngest of them, stays in Mumbai.

In terms of their combined net worth, the Hinduja family owns around $15 billion. According to Forbes' Real Time Net Worth list, they are ranked 110 in the world's richest list.

In June 2020, a UK court filing revealed that a dispute had started between Srichand and his three younger brothers over the ownership of the group’s Geneva bank.

Hinduja Bank in Switzerland was founded by Srichand Hinduja in Geneva in 1994. It is a small bank with assets of 343 million Swiss francs (Rs 2,744 crore) as of 2018. The bank offers personalised services to its high-net-worth customers. It also owns close to 5 per cent of Ashok Leyland.