Gautam Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director of Raymond Group, has reached out to the company’s board and employees in an internal communication to assure them that the messy divorce settlement proceedings and public fallout with his estranged wife Nawaz Modi will not have any impact on the company and its businesses.
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As per the internal email cited in a CNBC-TV18 report, Singhania said he refrained from publicly commenting on the entire episode to uphold the dignity of his family.
“As the media is ripe with news about matters pertaining to my personal life, I am writing to you to say that I have chosen not to comment on the same as maintaining the dignity of my family is paramount to me,” he wrote.
He also conveyed that despite facing a challenging personal period, Raymond’s operations continue as usual, adding that he remains committed to the smooth functioning of the company and its businesses.
In his letter to employees on Monday, Gautam Singhania assured them that despite the personal challenges, the company is flourishing, citing its “best quarter in history.”
Singhania highlighted recent achievements, including the expansion of the engineering business through the acquisition of MPPL, entry into sectors like aerospace, defense, and electric vehicle components, and securing two significant real estate projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
Singhania concluded the letter by reiterating his steadfast commitment to creating value for shareholders and ensuring the well-being of employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
Gautam Singhania publicly announced his separation from Nawaz Modi on November 13, subsequently followed by videos depicting Modi being excluded from a company Diwali party.
In the aftermath, Nawaz Modi publicly accused Gautam Singhania of physical assault, leading to her hospitalisation. The public fallout also led to a decline in Raymond’s stock price, shedding over Rs 1,500 crore from its market capitalisation within two weeks.
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This was after Nawaz Modi demanded a divorce settlement worth 75 per cent of Singhania’s $1.4 billion net worth. Shares of Raymond are down over 4 per cent today and have fallen nearly 10 per cent in the past five trading sessions.
However, in an interview to India Today TV, Nawaz Modi indicated that Gautam Singhania had called off the settlement. It is worth noting that Nawaz Modi serves on the boards of several companies, including Raymond, prompting suggestions from experts for the Raymond Group’s board to initiate an independent investigation. Some experts proposed that both Singhania and Nawaz temporarily step aside from the board.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Business Today TV, former Raymond boss Vijaypat Singhania expressed disappointment regarding the ongoing dispute between his son Gautam Singhania and his wife Nawaz Modi. “It’s difficult to describe what one goes through when you see your own family going to this kind of stress. I can only pray to God. He helps to solve these issues,” Singhania said. “I hadn’t hoped I’d have to see this in my own family,” he added.
He also said that it breaks his heart to witness Gautam Singhania “breaking up” the company. “He’s (Gautam Singhania) 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,” Vijaypat Singhania said.
Assessing the potential adverse effects of the discord on Raymond’s reputation, Vijaypat Singhania commented that the outcome hinges on the perceptions of shareholders, bankers, and stakeholders.
“Raymond has a very large number of mature, logical shareholders. They can think for themselves. If they see something bad, they react quickly,” Singhania said.
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“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 to build it. It was a very small company making blankets when we bought and then I took over. Today, it has worldwide fame,” he added.
