LONDON (Reuters) -Srichand Hinduja, the Indian-born billionaire leader of a global business empire and the patriarch of Britain’s wealthiest family, has died aged 87, his daughters said on Wednesday.
Hinduja, known by his initials S.P., was suffering from dementia and his family said he had “passed away peacefully this morning.”
He was chairman of the eponymous business group which owns public companies in India with interests in banking, chemicals, software and commercial vehicles.
Hinduja and his younger brother Gopichand, 83, topped the Sunday Times Rich List in 2022 for a fourth time, with an estimated net worth of 28.5 billion pounds ($36 billion) that includes property worth millions in central London.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our father,” Hinduja’s daughters Shanu and Vinoo said in a statement.
“SP was a visionary titan of industry and business, humanitarian and philanthropist … He touched countless lives on his path, and we are forever grateful for the time we cherished with him.”
The Hinduja Group, which employs 200,000 people across more than 30 countries, was founded in 1914 by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, who traded in carpets and dried fruit from Iran before his sons Srichand and Gopichand shifted their base to Britain in the 1970s.
More recently the brothers have been embroiled in a feud over the future of their business empire and Gopichand had challenged the legitimacy of a lasting power of attorney granted to Srichand’s daughters.
Gopichand and Srichand’s daughters had reached an apparent truce, but a lawyer representing Srichand’s interests told a London court last month that that agreement was at risk.
“Amongst other things, SP will be remembered for his great contributions in bringing India and its culture to the global stage through his work and philanthropic efforts,” Hinduja’s daughters said.
($1 = 0.7923 pound)
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar and Sam Tobin in LondonEditing by Toby Chopra and Matthew Lewis)
