 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Adding a twist to the ongoing tussle for Atlas Cycles, Arun Kapur has set an August-end deadline to settle the family dispute.
Otherwise, he plans to seek the support of other shareholders to change the management of the company.
Kapur has given three options to his uncles -- Jaidev Kapur and Jagdish Kapur -- to settle the dispute.
"My lawyer has given three options to my uncles' families. If they agree to any of these, I'm ready to resign from all the other group companies," Kapur said.
The first option is transferring Atlas Auto Cycles and Dewan Harnam Das Saraswati Devi Trust and Registered Society to Kapur.
Atlas Auto Cycles, which was merged with Atlas Cycles earlier and is valued at Rs 8 crore (Rs 80 million), manufactures fancy bicycles.
The trust, on the other hand, has two hospitals at Naraina in Delhi and Sonepat. It also owns a public school in Sonepat.
The trust is valued at Rs 18 crore (Rs 180 million), Kapur said. The second option is transferring Atlas Auto Cycles along with a departmental store, under Janki Das & Company, located at Connaught Place.
The departmental store is valued at around Rs 8 crore (Rs 80 million). In case the family does not agree to the above two options, Kapur has given them a choice of transferring the trust and the departmental store in his name.
If the matter is not settled by August-end, he plans to seek the support of other big shareholders in the company and get a majority shareholding in the company.
Kapur holds an 11 per cent stake in Atlas Cycles, the public hold a 51 per cent equity and other group companies hold 11 per cent in the company. The other families, put together, hold the rest 27 per cent stake.
"If other families do not agree to any of the options by August-end, I will seek the support of some large shareholders among the public and will claim management control at the general meeting in accordance with the Company Law Board guidelines," he said.
After Kapur was ousted from the post of additional joint president of Atlas Cycles on April 18 this year, he asked his uncles' families to either buy out his 11 per cent stake or sell their 27 per cent stake to him. The family, however, did not respond back.
Ernst & Young had earlier valued the assets of the group at around Rs 300 crore (Rs 3,000 million). The net profit of the company fell by 47.8 per cent to Rs 1.56 crore (Rs 15.6 million) in the April-June 2003 quarter compared with Rs 2.99 crore (Rs 29.9 million) in the corresponding period last year.