Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Apr 07, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Apr 07, 2002 |
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People Corporate - People Manu Chhabria dead Our Bureau
MUMBAI, April 6 MR Manohar (Manu) Rajaram Chhabria, Chairman of liquor major Shaw Wallace, died in Mumbai on Saturday following a cardiac arrest. He was 56. According to company officials, Mr Chhabria was hospitalised for over three weeks and underwent a bypass surgery on March 17 at Jaslok Hospital here. He is survived by his wife and three daughters. His body will be cremated on Sunday morning, officials said. Besides Shaw Wallace, Mr Chhabria had interests in several companies that were held through his $1.5-billion Dubai-based Jumbo group, which was set up in 1974. His business interests in India included the alcohol and beverages industry, tyres and chemicals. With more than 50 per cent of his business in India spread over six companies such as Mather & Platt, Dunlop India, Hindustan Dorr Oliver, Falcon Tyres and Gordon Woodroffe, the total asset value of these companies ran to about $600 million. Shaw Wallace, the group's flagship company in India, is the second largest beer and alcohol major in India by market share and volumes with a turnover of about Rs 2,500 crore. Regarded as the takeover tycoon in the eighties, Mr Chhabria fell out of favour in the nineties when his acquisitions did not turn into successful ventures. Litigations followed and accusations of FERA violations for siphoning of funds were made against Mr Chhabria. In late 1995, Shaw Wallace went into a crisis with about 17,000 fixed deposit-holders and over 178 creditors taking the company to court. Dunlop Tyres was referred to the BIFR following union problems. Similar problems surfaced in other group companies such as Mather & Platt and the fledging electronics company, Orson, which had to be shut down. A discord with his brother, Mr Kishore Chhabria, over Herbertsons and BDL along with FERA cases forced Mr Chhabria to stay in Dubai. And for the next five years from 1997, he did not to come to India. Signs of some of the problems easing first surfaced late last year with Shaw Wallace going through a restructuring and the repayment to creditors seemed to have put the company back on its feet. Industry watchers say that the announcement of Shaw Wallace's tie-up with a large British group, Kyndal, for manufacturing and marketing liquor brands was just the trigger needed to get the company back into its initial glory. In his last interview to Business Line in March 2002, Mr Chhabria had said that he was optimistic about Dunlop starting operations in the next three months. However, it remains to be seen whether his expectations will be realised.
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