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The Jumbo Group's hidden protagonist

Bhupesh Bhandari

Bhavika Godhwani, the little-known eldest daughter of Vidya Manohar Chhabria, has demanded a four-way split in the $2 billion Jumbo Group.

The business, she has demanded, should be divided equally between Chhabria and her three daughters - Bhavika, Komal Chhabria Wazir and Kiran Chhabria.

Bhavika has always kept a low profile. When her father, Manu Chhabria, was alive, he would often say that Bhavika was the least likely of his three daughters to join the family business. Then why this sudden flare-up in the family?

Sources close to Godhwani say that her angst is directed at 29-year-old Komal who has emerged as the public face of the Jumbo Group after her father's death in April this year.

Wazir is not new to the Indian corporate scene; she shot into prominence some years ago when she started attending Shaw Wallace board meetings in her father's place, who was then unable to visit India because he was facing FERA charges.

Wazir's pre-eminence among the sisters can be gauged from the fact that she is on the board of all the family's Indian ventures whereas Bhavika Godhwani is on the board of only one of them - Hindustan Dorr-Oliver.

Kiran Chhabria, the youngest, has just joined the family business in Dubai. A talented writer, she is helping out with group communications out of Dubai.

It is also worth noting that Manoj Godhwani, Bhavika's husband, was on the Dunlop India board but stepped down subsequently.

In fact, the Chhabria family has decided to keep its sons-in-law out of the family business. Thus, Komal's husband, Rajiv Wazir, runs his own advertising agency.

A commerce graduate from Mumbai's Sydenham College, Komal Wazir has been in the family business for six years now after starting out as a management trainee. Those who have worked with her say she knows her job.

In some ways she is like her father. For instance, she is a movie buff. But while her father enjoyed Bollywood flicks at home, she likes to watch good cinema at theatres.

There are differences too - Manu Chhabria loved to go out with friends, while Wazir is a home-bird and an avid reader.

Since the Chhabria family is trying to professionalise the group, Wazir says that her role is now restricted to strategising, with professionals looking after the day-to-day work of the group companies.

True to her word, when she was recently asked by Business Standard if a North-based group had approached her to sell its brewery, she said she would have to check with Shaw Wallace executives.

Shortly before his death in April this year, Manu Chhabria set up the Jumbo Group Corporate Management Board to convert the group into a professionally-managed business entity.

The group recently appointed H N Nanani, formerly with ModiCorp joint venture Xerox India, as CEO in charge of its India operations. More independent directors are reportedly soon to be inducted on its board.

Though Wazir insists that she is totally hands-off, the pace of things has picked up considerably at SWC, the group's Indian flagship, in the post-Manu Chhabria era. It has raided its arch rival, Vijay Mallya-promoted UB, for top talent.

A K M A Shamsuddin resigned as a chief operating officer of the UB Spirits Division (which includes Herbertsons and McDowell's) to join SWC as president (liquor division).

Now, another UB Spirits Division COO, S K Bishwal, has put in his papers and is likely to join SWC soon. Thus, two out of the four COOs of UB Spirits Division might soon be in the SWC camp.

Ironically, the flare-up between the siblings has happened at a time when Wazir and her mother are trying to end the earlier feud in the family between Manu Chhabria and his brother Kishore.

Before his death, Manu Chhabria had started a process of rapprochement with his brother, settling several issues out of court.

Wazir says she is committed to resolving the remaining issues with her uncle out of court too. At the moment, though, her hands are full with an issue with her elder sister.

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