Popat brothers’ legal battle for wealth gives insight into business empire spanning continents

The bruising succession battle between two sons of deceased business magnate Karim Popat has for the first time offered an insight into just how far the tycoon’s business empire stretched.

The court case filed by Azim, a Canada—based businessman, against his younger brother Adil has seen the siblings reveal some of the wealth at stake in the battle for control of Popat senior’s empire.

Azim claims that Adil has unfairly taken up the lion’s share of their father’s assets and wants a redistribution of the wealth which stretches beyond Kenya’s borders, as far as Portugal, Canada, Gibraltar, Guernsey and the United Kingdom.

Adil however insists that the distribution was done according to their late father’s will and says it should be upheld.

The court battle has also revealed for the first time, some family secrets that have formed the core of Azim and Adil’s fight for billions of shillings in cash, real estate properties, company shares and offshore trusts.

Adil, as court papers have demonstrated, may have been Karim Popat’s blue-eyed boy as the Simba Corporation CEO was entrusted with details of several companies and trusts the family patriarch owned abroad.

His older brother Azim has faulted Adil for not revealing the extent of their father’s offshore wealth and claims it was a calculated move aimed at locking his siblings out of billions of shillings.

“The existence of these trusts, the assets they hold and other material details of their affairs have been deliberately withheld from this honourable court and thus materially distort the value and nature of bequests made by our late father to his beneficiaries. I have also recently found other documents that prove that my late father held other significant assets including real estate and Swiss bank accounts which have not been declared in the probate proceedings,” Azim adds.

Alnashir—also a brother to the warring siblings—appears to have been allocated a good chunk of his inheritance before their father’s demise in 2013, in the form of control of fallen lender Imperial Bank and a host of companies like Super Spring Limited, Pathcare Kenya and Cool Extreme.

READ: Popat brother sucked into raging Imperial Bank war

In what now resembles the biblical parable of the prodigal son, the senior Popat gave Alnashir control of the companies following a 2007 fallout between the two according to a statement filed in court by Azim.

Alnashir has also sued Azim in Gibraltar demanding a share of money held in Kaly’s Trust which was registered in the tax haven.

The documents filed in the Mombasa High Court state that Alnashir in 2007 demanded he be given an executive role to match that of his younger brother Adil, something that did not go down well with their father.

Azim in his court filings holds that their father ruled with a firm hand, but was forgiving and kept giving his sons opportunities to redeem themselves in business even after colossal failure.

He gives an example of two failed hotel ventures in Portugal under Adil alongside several real estate investments which made losses but did not hinder the senior Popat from giving his son another chance.

Adil was at the time living in Portugal where he met his wife. “Notwithstanding the aforesaid failed hotel ventures in Portugal and real estate deals that went sour, my father who believed in giving all of us second and third chances as a necessary aspect of perfecting business skills, allowed Adil in his capacity as managing director of Simba Corporation to lead in the development of Villa Rosa Kempinski along Chiromo Road,” Azim holds.

Azim however says their father was concerned with Adil’s running of Simba Corp, as the company had to borrow more than half of the Sh7 billion needed to construct the five star hotel.