Family Businesses

Why Every Family Office Needs a Constitution

Family businesses in India have spent generations learning to build great companies. Fewer learnt how to run their money. As India’s business families grow richer, family offices (FOs) have quietly become the most powerful seat in the enterprise that almost no one is watching: large pools of capital, deployed at real consequence, answerable to barely any outside authority and increasingly handed early to the next generation. But whom does the FO actually answer to?

Continue Reading Why Every Family Office Needs a Constitution
Navigating AI adoption across India’s Family Businesses

The role that India’s family businesses (FBs) play in our economy is staggering – more than 70% of India’s GDP comes from FBs and promoter-run companies. These are multi-generational enterprises, with deeply embedded cultures and concentrated governance structures, with often a single power center in a senior patriarch.

Continue Reading Navigating AI adoption across India’s Family Businesses
The importance of brand strategy and management for large family businesses

In today’s highly competitive business landscape, a robust brand strategy is crucial for any organisation, especially large conglomerates that bear a family name. A well-defined brand strategy can not only establish a strong market presence, it can also mitigate potential conflicts, ensure consistency, and protect the brand’s legacy.

Continue Reading The importance of brand strategy and management for large family businesses
Nomination v. Succession – SC Finally Settles the Debate

Historical Background

The longstanding debate on the conflict between the rights of nominees and legal heirs over the devolution of shares has always been the cause of much controversy and confusion despite the settled legal position holding the legal heir as the ultimate rightful owner of the property. A nominee can act only as a…

Source: HBO.com

“I’m not saying I’d make a better CEO. That’s unsaid.” – Connor Roy

At the time of publication, we are just a few days away from the release of the final season of HBO’s highly acclaimed family business drama, Succession. For many viewers in India, the show’s portrayal of the perils and tribulations of running a family business hits uncomfortably close to home. Many would say this show is an example of art imitating life. Others may see it as a docudrama about their family business. It is a poignant example of what can happen without a clear succession plan, and it packages together many common issues faced by many Indian family businesses – such as an aging founder who is unwilling to cede control or induct his middle aged children, a failure to modernize (as seen in many older media houses that are going through similar existential dilemmas), siblings squabbling for the CEO role, and a founder family & business enthralled in multiple full-blown crises.

Continue Reading HBO’s Succession: Reel-to-Real life lessons for Indian Family Businesses

Fund structures are gaining popularity among wealthy individuals in India as optimum structures to help with wealth planning, investments, and tax management. Family offices are viewing GIFT City, India’s first international financial services centre (“IFSC”), for the purpose of facilitating global investments in a structured manner. 

Continue Reading IFSCA Relaxes Rules for Family Investment Funds in GIFT City

SEBI Directive on Promoter Group

In April 2022, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued a directive (SEBI Directive) to the Association of Investment Bankers of India (AIBI) and some of its members on ways in which IPO bound companies could seek exemptions in relation to ‘promoter group’ disclosures in IPO offer documents.

In addition to introducing a further layer of complexity to the process of taking a company public, the SEBI Directive has reignited discussions on the relevance and significance of ‘promoter group’ as a concept.Continue Reading SEBI Directive on Promoter Group: Another spanner in the works?

Promoter reclassification - Family feud An area of concern

The Indian business landscape mainly comprises of family run businesses. Keeping in mind the close-knit joint family culture in the country, Indian regulators have been particularly cautious of family members owning and controlling a business together. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has, in Regulation 2(1)(pp) of the SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018, given a broad definition of “promoter group”, which includes any immediate relatives of the promoter and entities where such relatives have more than 20% stake. Being a member of the promoter group of a listed company entails rigorous disclosure and compliance obligations under various SEBI regulations. In fact, SEBI has in its Consultative Paper dated November 23, 2020, made a noting that there is a need for further clarification under Regulation 31 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (LODR), with regard to disclosing names of persons in promoter/ promoter group who hold even ‘Nil’ shareholding in the listed company.
Continue Reading Promoter reclassification – Family feud: An area of concern