BK Birla's Pilani shares for Kumar Mangalam

Basant Kumar Birla would like to transfer his 30 per cent holding in the Birla holding company Pilani Investments to grandson Kumar Mangalam Birla though most of the companies of his Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) group have gone to his daughters in his succession plan, according to an interview of BK Birla by television channel CNBC-TV18 on Friday.

The response of Kumar Mangalam Birla to BK Birla's wish to transfer the Pilani shares to him was not known. BK Birla was unavailable for comments.

BK Birla indicated in the interview the Kumar Mangalam Birla and the Ganga Prasad-Chandrakant Birla groups would have to untangle their cross-holdings for proper management of Birla companies.

The cross-holdings were to be untangled under the Birla family partition plan, but the unravelling was done only in the case of the KK Birla family, and not in the others.

The transfer of BK Birla's Pilani shares is expected to give Kumar Mangalam Birla greater control over some companies in the Aditya Vikram Birla group, in which other Birla families continue to have a holding through their ownership of Pilani shares.

Kumar Mangalam Birla himself does not own any Pilani shares, but this could not be confirmed.

The Ganga Prasad-Chandrakant Birla and MP Birla groups hold a quarter of the Pilani shares, while SK Birla owns 10 per cent. The balance is publicly held.

The Pilani shares have assumed importance in the backdrop of the succession drama in the MP Birla group, after Priyamavada Birla, widow of MP Birla, willed her estate to group co-chairman Rajendra Singh Lodha. This gives Lodha control of shares held by Pilani Investments in companies managed by other Birla groups.

The entry of Lodha, seen as an "outsider", into the ranks of Pilani owners has been resisted by the Birla family, and the Birla opposition has been attributed in part to a steadfast refusal to allow Pilani shares in hands of individuals other than the family or individuals acceptable to them.

Pilani has large shareholdings in some BK Birla group companies but these shares are in the hands of other Birla family factions like the Ganga Prasad-Chandrakant Birla group, the Sudarshan-Siddharth Birla group and the MP Birla group.

BK Birla manages companies like Century Textiles with such cross-holdings. Pilani shares in the hands of other Birla factions also form part of the shareholdings of some Aditya Birla group companies.

The Birla family has launched a series of cases against Lodha's probate petition on the registered will of Priyamvada Birla and also independent civil and criminal cases disputing the right of Priyamvada Birla to transfer the shares and of Lodha to assert control over them.