Indian tycoon’s daughter seeks gender equality in $5-billion company

By S Venkat Narayan,

Our Special Correspondent

 NEW DELHI, October 11: Ms Valli Arunachalam, the eldest daughter of former Murugappa group chairman M.V. Murugappan, has issued legal notices to Ambadi Investment Ltd (AIL) and Murugappa family members, in her fight for representation on the board of the group’s holding company.

 “I can hereby confirm that following careful and thorough deliberation and in consultation with our independent advisers, we have decided to seek legal remedies with respect to our ongoing efforts to settle my father’s will,” said Arunachalam on Thursday.

 “Accordingly, we issued legal notices to the Murugappa family members, Ambadi Investments Ltd management, the company and other people in relation thereto.”

 “It was a big step for us and a very unfortunate one, as we have worked tirelessly over the course of the last three years to bring about an amicable settlement of my father’s interests in AIL. With the family voting unanimously to reject my appointment to the AIL board, we have seemingly reached the end of the road for an amicable settlement,” she added.

 Arunachalam’s move comes after AIL investors—largely her uncles and cousins—rejected her bid to become a non-executive director of the company at an Annual General Meeting (AGM) last month.

 In an interview on September 24, following the AGM, Arunachalam said she was considering all options, including legal avenues, in what she considers a battle for gender equality.

AIL is the holding company of the INR370-billion ($5-billion) family-run conglomerate in which Arunachalam’s father held an 8.15% stake, which he left to his wife and two daughters.

 “Given how the Murugappa family has treated our family branch over the past three years, we have no confidence that our substantial stake in the family business will be safeguarded by them. Perhaps most confounding to us is that the Murugappa family has attempted to project their stand as principled and righteous,” she said.

 “With only female heirs, the historically male-dominated family business is effectively asking that my family assume a second class standing in AIL without any of the rights or privileges enjoyed by other families (many of whom have equal economic interests),” she added.

 Ms Arunachalam added that a considerable portion of her late father’s estate is tied to AIL, and it is unreasonable to expect her family to relinquish control and visibility over these holdings to the broader Murugappa family. “We have complete faith in the judiciary and are emboldened by some of the recent decisions. We are confident that justice will prevail.”

 A Murugappa Group spokesperson declined to comment.