Britain’s richest family patriarch Srichand Hinduja dies at 87
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Billionaire Srichand Hinduja died on Wednesday after struggling with dementia.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – Mr Srichand Hinduja, the tycoon who headed Britain’s richest family, has died at the age of 87.
Mr Hinduja had dementia, and his plight became the centre of a family feud that culminated in court proceedings about whether he should be taken into public care.
The eldest of four brothers behind the Hinduja Group, he died on Wednesday, according to a family spokesman.
He “passed away peacefully” and was “looked after” by relatives, the spokesman said, hailing him as a “visionary titan of industry and business”.
The Hindujas topped the Sunday Times Rich List in 2022 with a fortune estimated at £28.4 billion (S$47.5 billion).
But a London judge said despite the vast means at their disposal, Mr Hinduja’s needs became “marginalised” by the family dispute, according to court filings that emerged in November 2022.
The family said they had settled their differences.
The conglomerate was founded by the brothers’ father, Mr Parmanand Hinduja, who traded in tea and dried fruit in Mumbai in 1919 before moving it to Iran.
The brothers took over in the 1960s and greatly expanded the business.
The sprawling Hinduja Group – led by London-based Mr Hinduja and Mr Gopichand Hinduja – grew to span interests in power, oil and gas, banking and healthcare.
Mr Hinduja was thrust into the British media spotlight in the late 1990s amid accusations that a leading member of then Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government improperly lobbied to gain him British citizenship. AFP
