Lalit Modi's industrialist father, K K Modi has said that Lalit would succeed him as the head of the Rs 3,400-crore group's flagship company, Godfrey Philips India, the makers of Marlboro, Four Square and Red & White cigarettes, reports Times of India.
“Lalit is the seniormost member of the K K Modi family, he is meant to take over the business,'' the 73-year patriarch told TOI. Lalit is, at present, an executive director in GPI. KKM, however, did not have a date in mind for the succession.
. “He is the most brilliant and intelligent member of the family and has created something no one has been able to do so far,'' he said referring to the IPL. “I only wish he had done it for the K K Modi group,'' he added.K K Modi says it doesn't bother him any more that his son, Lalit Modi, spends so little time on the family business, something that worried him earlier.
“Thanks to his (Lalit) association with IPL, he has created a network of the rich, famous and influential, which can always be utilized whenever business opportunities crop up for the Modi family,'' KKM said.
He sounds doting as he proudly recounts how, during his recent visit to Australia, he was introduced as Lalit Modi's father. “I'm wellknown in my age group, but for him it's across all ages.''
Modi has another interesting take on the fact that Lalit does not spend enough time on the family business: All his three children have been given space to focus on one additional business, which they do separately.
So while younger son Samir runs a cosmetic business on his own, daughter Charu (Bhartia) manages an education business. Similarly, his wife runs a chain of restaurants and a fashion line. “So it's all right if Lalit wants to put time into a business which makes Modi a household name.''Interestingly, some other members of the extended Modi family, which once fought acrimoniously, have thrown their weight behind Lalit.
TOI spoke to another senior Modi, who said Lalit could do no wrong. As far as succession is concerned, K K Modi has already drawn up a plan to move the family's holdings in group companies to the K K Modi Family Trust, which will be managed by a person all three children appoint unanimously every three years. It would appear that Modi has learnt some lessons from the acrimonious split when he and his four siblings divided their father Rai Bahadur Gujar Mal Modi's business.
As executive director of Godfrey Phillips India, Lalit Modi drew a salary of Rs 50.69 lakh in 2008-09, as per the company's annual report
As director of Indofil Organic Industries, an agri-chemicals company, he drew Rs 1.86 lakh
He holds a 5.89% stake in Savera Industries, which has interests in hospitality and floriculture, worth Rs 2 crore, based on Savera's Monday closing price of Rs 61 on the Bombay Stock Exchange
