Murugappa Group scion Valli Arunachalam has served a legal notice to the family and management following rejection of a board seat on the group’s holding company Ambadi Investments Ltd (AIL).
“On behalf of my mother, sister and me, I can hereby confirm that following careful and thorough deliberation and in consultation with our independent advisors, we have decided to seek legal remedies with respect to our ongoing efforts to settle my father’s will. Accordingly, we issued legal notices to the Murugappa family members, AIL management and other people in relation thereto,” Arunachalam said in an e-mail reply.
“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.
At its board meeting on September 22, AIL had rejected the appointment of Valli Arunachalam on its board. The request for a board seat, which was put for vote at AIL’s AGM, was vetoed by 91 per cent of the shareholders.
Also read: AIL rejects board seat for Valli Arunachalam
“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.
“What is clear to us after three years is that the family’s tactics are nothing more than a robe to conceal their socially regressive gender bias. 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 said, adding, the Murugappa family has not provided any “logical or legally valid” explanation for subordinating her family.
Also read: AIL may appoint Valli Arunachalam on board