M.P. Birla

The M.P. Birla group can broadly be divided into three categories: corporate assets, trust assets and personal assets. The total assets of the M.P. Birla group companies Birla Corporation and Universal Cables and its associate companies adds up to about Rs 2,000 crore. Since most of these companies are quoted on the stock exchanges, their figures are fairly easily accessible and the valuations are open and transparent.

A bulk of the estate, however, is locked up in charitable, education and medical trusts. For example, the group owns the Bombay Hospital near New Marine Line in Mumbai and Indore and the Belle Vue Clinic in Kolkata. Besides, the new M.P. Birla Eye Clinic is coming up on an 18,000 square feet plot adjacent to Belle Vue. Then, there is the South Point School and the M.P. Birla Foundation Higher Secondary School in Kolkata, the M.P. Birla Institute of Management, Bangalore and the M.P. Birla Industrial Training Institute in Rewa. The M.P. Birla Planetariums are also located in prime areas in their respective cities. According to M.P. Birla Group executives, all these institutions are sitting on 30-40 acres prime real estate collectively worth Rs 600-700 crore. The three houses that M.P. Birla owned in Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi are together worth at least Rs 100 crore, they added. Thus, assets of Rs 2,700-2,800 crore can be accounted for. In addition, Priyamvada Birla was known to own priceless jewellery whose value cannot be ascertained.

This is the point at which the going becomes difficult and estimates, guesstimates and even fanciful number calling takes over. Birla insiders admit they don't really know the extent of assets owned by the unlisted companies and trusts of the M.P. Birla Group. "We know that some of his trusts and unlisted companies had huge real estate holdings and other assets. But in the absence of balance sheets and other documentary evidence, it would be speculative to either list or put an exact figure on them," they said. But conventional wisdom and the corporate grapevine have it that the rest of the assets could well add up to another Rs 2,000-crores or so.

The only person who possibly knows the real answer to this question is R.S. Lodha. He is chairman of all the trusts and now executor of Priyamvada Birla's will. But he isn't speaking.

According to a senior lawyer, this question can be answered with certainty only if the court orders an inventory of all assets left behind by Priyamvada Birla and then appoints a valuer to appraise them. Unless that happens, the actual figure could well remain secret forever.