When Manohar Rajaram Chhabria moved from Mumbai to Dubai 28 years ago, he had virtually nothing in his pocket. The man who started as a small elctronics goods trader in Mumbai’s Lamington Road — set up the Jumbo Group in 1974 with a loan of Rs 40,000 — leaves behind a Rs 7,500 crore empire, employing over 20,000 people and a presence in 50 countries. Chhabria — who managed his empire from Al Salaam Towers, a glass and granite Dubai high-rise — was essentially an old fashioned businessman who chose the high-profile takeover route while looking for quick returns. Daughter Komal to succeed?The biggest question mark in the Jumbo group is: Who will succeed Chhabria in his companies. His second daughter Komal Chhabria-Wazir, 30, who is already a director on the board of Dunlop and Shaw Wallace, is expected to take control of major companies in the group. ENSIn the process, he crossed swords with a host of Indian business magnates like UB group chief Vijay Mallya and even his own brother Kishore Chhabria. With acquisitions like tyre giant Dunlop, the 110-year-old liquor conglomerate Shaw Wallace and Company (SWC), Mather & Platt, Hindustan Dorr Oliver, Falcon Tyres, Gordon Woodroffe, in 1985, Chhabria was virtually at the top of the world. But these companies floundered after the takeover and lost heavily making lakhs of its shareholders paupers overnight. Since then Chhabria’s association with Indian companies were mired in one controversy or other. However, it was his Jumbo group’s activities in Dubai which flourished and it emerged as the leading dealer for world’s top brands in consumer electronics like Sony. Chhabria found himself at the wrong end of the road for the whole of ’90s. SWC had been facing an overwhelming number of winding up petitions filed by as many as 178 creditors. Orson, the electronics company floated by Chhabria, was shut for good. At Mather & Platt, the union had been pressing the Company Law Board to remove Chhabria from the driving seat. Added to this were his ceaseless battles with executives, former associates and his brother Kishore Chhabria, reconciliation process with whom was on till his death. On top of this, pinned down in Dubai and unable to visit India, Chhabria was barely a step away from being dubbed a fugitive by the government. The West Bengal government has been sending signals to the Centre indicating that it was serious about taking away Dunlop from Chhabria and handing it over to another private promoter. The financial institutions, which made heavy investments in Shaw Wallace and Dunlop, wanted Chhabria to exit from the company. What irked Manu was that when the Kishore split in 1991, he took his BDA Ltd to join hands with arch-rival Mallya. His feud with Mallya made headlines as Chhabria’s Shaw Wallace was the main challenger to Mallya’s UB group in the liquor segment. While Dunlop remained a millstone on the Jumbo group, some other group companies like Hindustan Dorr-Oliver had staged a comeback recently. Chhabria, 56, who underwent a by-pass surgery last month died in Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital on Saturday following a cardiac arrest. His end came at a time when things started looking better for him again.
