Gopichand Hinduja, Family Empire’s Latest Patriarch, Dies at 85

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(Bloomberg) — Gopichand Hinduja, chairman and the latest patriarch of a sprawling business empire that produced one of the world’s largest family fortunes, has died. He was 85.

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A spokesman for the British-Indian dynasty confirmed Hinduja’s death in an email Tuesday.

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The industrialist commonly known in business circles at “GP” was the second-eldest of four brothers who for decades controlled Mumbai-based Hinduja Group, a closely held conglomerate that employs more than 200,000 people in 38 countries with activities spanning healthcare, energy and media. The eldest sibling, Srichand, died in 2023 at 87 after suffering from a form of dementia.

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Hinduja Group’s assets include major holdings in listed Indian businesses — from automaker Ashok Leyland Ltd. to Mumbai-based lender IndusInd Bank Ltd. The Hindujas also recently refurbished a hotel near 10 Downing Street in London, where they own a set of palatial homes overlooking St James’s Park, and have a real estate firm that has bought more than 250 acres of land across India.

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Spanning at least four generations, the Hinduja dynasty has a combined net worth of more than $12 billion, putting them among Asia’s richest families, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

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Born in 1940, Hinduja joined the family business in 1959 after leaving university. By that time, his father, Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, had made a fortune as a merchant, importing carpets, dried fruits and saffron from Iran and exporting goods such as textiles and tea.

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Hinduja then helped to expand his family’s holdings. He spearheaded the family’s push into the power and infrastructure sectors as the conglomerate acquired truck maker Ashok Leyland Ltd. and Gulf Oil International during the 1980s, according to Hinduja Group’s website. 

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His surviving siblings – Prakash, 80, and Ashok, who turns 76 this year – had been serving as chairmen of Hinduja Group’s operations in Europe and India, respectively.

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Hinduja Group’s assets are owned by family members under a structure guided by the principle that assets held by one belong to all and that each one will appoint the others as their executors.

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Starting in 2021, that stance became the focus of a legal battle in the UK, where Srichand lived, as he and his daughter, Vinoo, sought to carve out some of the family’s assets. His three brothers wanted the group to stick to its age-old motto that “everything belongs to everyone and nothing belongs to anyone.” While the family called a truce on the bitter power struggle in late 2022, it emerged in the weeks before Srichand’s death that the family was still privately haggling on related issues.

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—With assistance from Pui Gwen Yeung.

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