The trust–RK Family Trust–is at the centre of a succession and inheritance dispute within the promoter family. Sunjay Kapur’s wife and mother–Priya Sachdev Kapur and Rani Kapur–are at odds over inheritance and control of the Trust’s stake in Sona Comstar, which is worth almost ₹8,000 crore.
RK Family Trust owns 65% of Aureus Investment Private Ltd, which in turn controls the 28% promoter stake in Sona Comstar (listed as Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd). In 2019, RK Family Trust had informed Sona Comstar, which was a privately held company at the time, that its sole beneficiary was Sunjay Kapur.
Vivek Vikram Singh, the company’s managing director and group CEO, said during an analyst call to discuss the company’s June-quarter results that the discord was limited to the promoter family and it has no bearing on its performance. “There is far more sensationalism around this than there is impact. Whoever controls the 28% doesn’t have that much [impact],” Singh said.
Aureus Investment, the promoter company, has the right to nominate just one director to Sona Comstar’s board, Singh said on the call, adding that even that power was not absolute. The board may choose to reject the nomination. Even if the board approves it, public shareholders then have to ratify the nomination, he said.
“How the appointment of a single director on a board with six independent directors can have an impact on the running of the company is very bizarre to me,” he said, blaming the media for putting a spotlight on the succession dispute.
The Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd stock has lost almost 15% since the sudden passing away of its chairman on 12 June. It closed 1.26% higher on the BSE on Monday at ₹442.8 compared to a 1.54% gain in the S&P BSE Auto Index.
After Kapur’s demise, Aureus Investment nominated Priya as a non-executive director of Sona Comstar. Her appointment was accepted by the company’s board and, later, by its shareholders at its annual general meeting on 25 July. Earlier, Priya was appointed as the managing director of Aureus within a week of Sunjay’s passing away.
Unhappy with Priya’s appointment to the Aureus and Sona Comstar boards, Rani Kapur wrote to the latter company on 24 July, questioning the authority of those who approved the appointment of Priya. She also alleged that she was made to sign certain documents while she was grieving and that she has no knowledge of what she signed upon.
“I was approached multiple times and compelled to sign various documents without explanation or even having time to read and understand the same,” she wrote in her letter. “Despite being under immense mental and emotional distress, I was coerced into signing such documents behind locked doors and though I’ve requested repeatedly, the contents of such documents have never been revealed to me.”
Vaibhav Gaggar, the lawyer appointed by Rani Kapur, declined to comment on the structure of the company and who was the controlling trustee of RK Family Trust. “There is a lot to it. It will start unfolding. Ms Kapur has talked about some very suspicious things,” he said.
Company’s Q1 performance
Meanwhile, the rare earth magnet crisis and tariff war dented Sona Comstar’s profit and revenue in the April-June quarter, but the outlook remains bullish.
The company reported a consolidated profit of ₹125 crore for the quarter, 12% less year-on-year (y-o-y). Revenue was 5% lower y-o-y at ₹851 crore.
The company’s business was affected by several obstacles during the quarter, including China’s sudden restriction on the export of rare earth elements, which are crucial to make motors for electric vehicles, a key product for Sona Comstar. Other headwinds included the US tariffs, with North America being the key market for the company.
“Q1 FY26 was a challenging quarter for us due to the convergence of multiple adverse factors, which are temporary, and some have started to resolve already,” CEO Singh said in a media statement.
The company ended the quarter with a few large order wins, he said, which helped its net order book reach an all-time high of ₹26,200 crore. The comparable figure at the end of the preceding quarter was ₹24,200 crore. Amongst the order wins was a ₹1,550 crore order from a North American automaker to supply differential assemblies–the company’s largest order win in 30 months.
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