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Profile · Gautam Hari Singhania

Gautam Singhania: Raymond Chairman's Life Story

Gautam Singhania, born 9 September 1965: the Raymond chairman's family, how he rebuilt Raymond, the feud with his father, controversies and net worth.

CapitalVia Research Desk · · 43 min read

Gautam Singhania delivering a keynote address at an Indian Navy seminar, 2016
Gautam Singhania at the Indian Navy-ITTA Clothing and Footwear Seminar, January 2016. Photo: Indian Navy, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons
Key facts
Born 9 September 1965 [1]
Family roots The Singhania family of the JK Organisation, founded in Kanpur by Lala Juggilal and Lala Kamlapat Singhania in 1918 [41] [22]
Education Commerce graduate [1]
Family Father Vijaypat Singhania (1938-2026), mother Ashadevi; elder brother Madhupati, sister Shephali [57]; separated from Nawaz Modi Singhania in 2023; daughters Niharika and Nisa [58]
Company/Group Raymond Group: Chairman and Managing Director of Raymond Ltd; Executive Chairman of Raymond Lifestyle; promoter of Raymond Realty [1] [88] [2]
Known for Launching KamaSutra in 1991, turning Raymond into three listed companies, fast cars and motor racing, and a long public feud with his father [21] [86] [81] [77]

Where it began

In the early hours of 20 March 2026, a high-speed tender capsized off Felidhoo in the Maldives with seven people on board. Gautam Singhania, the chairman of Raymond, was one of them. He came out with minor injuries and was flown to Mumbai. Two of the men with him, the rally champion Hari Singh and the retired naval commander and Arjuna awardee Mahesh Ramachandran, did not come back [73] [75] [76]. Eight days later, on 28 March, his father Vijaypat Singhania died in Mumbai at 87. The two men had barely spoken for nearly a decade [56] [57].

Those few days in March show the two sides of Gautam Singhania’s life. One is the businessman. He took a debt-laden textile group in 1999-2000 and, over 25 years, cleaned it up, sold what did not fit and split it into three listed companies in lifestyle, real estate and aerospace engineering. The other is the man in the headlines: the speed-lover, the son his father publicly disowned, the husband whose separation made shareholders nervous. To understand how he got rich, you need both.

A family that built India’s textile mills

Gautam Hari Singhania was born on 9 September 1965 [1], into one of the oldest business families in north India. The JK Organisation was started in 1918 by a father and son in Kanpur, Lala Juggilal and Lala Kamlapat Singhania [41] [22]. Over the next generations the family split into regional branches. Today there are three main ones: Kanpur, Delhi and Mumbai. Gautam belongs to the Mumbai branch, whose crown jewel is Raymond [22].

Raymond itself did not start with the Singhanias. It began as a woollen mill on the creek at Thane, near Bombay, and in 1925 the Sassoon family reincorporated it as the Raymond Woollen Mill, making coarse blankets and cheap wool cloth [18] [19]. In 1944 the Singhanias bought it and kept the name. Gautam’s grandfather, Kailashpat Singhania, built it into a brand. He opened the first Raymond shop, King’s Corner in Bombay’s Ballard Estate, in 1958 [18] [19].

His father, Vijaypat Singhania, born in 1938, became Raymond’s chairman in 1980 [57]. Vijaypat was a celebrity in his own right. He was a record-setting aviator who flew a microlight from England to India and later set a hot-air balloon altitude record, and a Padma Bhushan awardee [57]. Vijaypat said later that he grew Raymond from about Rs 100 crore to Rs 5,000 crore during his years in charge [77].

Growing up with speed

Gautam was the younger of two sons. His mother was Ashadevi Singhania; his elder brother is Madhupati and his sister is Shephali [57]. The company’s own filings describe him simply as a commerce graduate [1]. Reports differ on which Mumbai schools he attended, and we could not confirm them.

What we do know is that speed came early. He got his first go-kart at the age of four. “The fascination grew with time,” he told Outlook Business. “Eventually, I started driving and developed an urge to turn my fascination for these supercars into my passion” [81]. That hobby would one day turn into a garage of Ferraris and Lamborghinis and a seat on the governing council of world motor sport [83].

The first break

Gautam joined the family group in 1986, at about 21 [21]. The work that made his name was not in suits. It was in condoms.

In the late 1980s Raymond had a partner that planned to make condoms in India, through the joint venture J K Condoms. Gautam went to the ad legend Alyque Padamsee of Lintas, whose agency had made Raymond’s Park Avenue ads. He asked whether Lintas could do “a similar fabulous job for a condom brand” [24]. The result was KamaSutra, launched in 1991 with a bold, sensual print and film campaign. Doordarshan banned the ad; cable television picked it up; the whole country talked about it [23]. “Thus, the condom became a lifestyle product instead of just a functional product used for family planning,” Padamsee said later [24].

The Times of India credited Gautam with “building the condom business and KamaSutra brand with some bold advertising in the early ’90s” [21]. Company records show that he joined the Raymond board as a whole-time director on 1 April 1990 [1].

The brothers who went separate ways

In 1998 the question of who would succeed Vijaypat came to a head. Business Standard reported in July 1998 that the group might be divided between the two sons. Madhupati, then 40 and running the synthetics business, would take the international units and move to Singapore. Gautam, then joint managing director of the woollens division, was the son who stayed [12].

Madhupati left that year. According to court records reported by The Economic Times, he signed a family agreement in 1998 giving up his own and his children’s rights in the family fortune, and moved to Singapore [41]. On 29 June 1999 Gautam became managing director of Raymond [13]. In September 2000, at 35, he became chairman and managing director [14] [21].

Building the empire

The clean-up: 1999 to 2004

The Raymond that Gautam inherited was in trouble. In the mid-1990s it had spread itself across cement, steel, synthetic yarn and denim. Steel alone was a Rs 600 crore project. By 1998-99 its debt was Rs 905 crore and its return on capital was a thin 8.5% [13].

He was blunt about it. “The problem area is steel. It is not doing well due to difficult market conditions. We want to divest,” he told Business Today in 1999. On cement: “We may sell cement, but at a price. The business has a certain value” [13].

Over the next five years he sold almost everything that was not cloth:

  • Synthetic yarn. Raymond had wanted to sell its stake in Raymond Synthetics to Reliance since 1997 [15]. The yarn unit went to the Reliance group in September 1999 [14]. (Reliance’s own story is in our profile of Mukesh Ambani.)
  • Cement. Raymond’s cement business, with its plant in Bilaspur, was sold to France’s Lafarge for about Rs 785 crore. Business Today reported in October 2000 that the deal was struck in early 2000 [14]. Indian Cement Review puts the acquisition in 2001, probably when it was completed [17] [6].
  • Steel. A first deal with Germany’s Thyssen fell through in 1998 [13]. A stake was then sold to ThyssenKrupp, and Raymond sold its last 16.4% in 2004 [14] [16].

“Altogether we raised about Rs 1,500-1,600 crore. We cleared our debts and reinvested the rest of the money,” he said later. “We had huge debts and I had a tough time” [22]. In October 2000 he told Business Today: “There was nothing wrong with our operations. It’s just that the environment changed. We’ve taken some hard decisions, and come out stronger” [14].

From fabric to clothes: 2000s

With the decks cleared, Gautam bet that Indians would buy more ready-made clothes. “People do not have the time to get their clothes stitched. They are moving to readymades,” he had argued in 1999 [13].

In September 2002 Raymond agreed to buy 75.1% of ColorPlus Fashions of Chennai, a smart-casual brand. Business Standard reported the price as Rs 44 crore; another report said the business was valued at Rs 58 crore [25] [26]. Brands like Park Avenue, Parx and ColorPlus went alongside the Raymond fabric shops. Raymond liked to say it was “from the sheep’s back to the man’s back” [20].

The “Complete Man” campaign gave the brand a voice. It was created in the 1990s by the agency Nexus Equity [19]. It made Raymond a byword for the well-dressed Indian man.

Not every bet paid off. In 2006 Raymond formed a 50:50 denim venture with Belgium’s UCO, targeting Rs 1,200 crore of sales in its first year [27]. By September 2008, with losses at the venture doubling to Rs 120 crore, Raymond put its stake up for sale [28]. He also turned down a chance to invest in IndiGo in 2005, before the airline took off. “I realised I need to follow my head and not my heart, as Raymond is on an upswing,” he said in 2006 [20]. Later he admitted: “At that time, for whatever wisdom I had, I chose not to do it” [80]. (The IndiGo story is in our profiles of Rahul Bhatia and Rakesh Gangwal.)

A slow decade: 2008 to 2018

The global financial crisis hit hard. Raymond made losses in FY09 and FY10. The old Thane mill was shut and production moved elsewhere, including a shirting plant at Kolhapur that opened in 2008 [22]. Revenue grew steadily but not dramatically: Rs 4,143 crore in FY13, Rs 4,621 crore in FY14 and Rs 5,428 crore in FY15. By the end of 2015 Raymond had more than 1,000 shops in 380 towns [22].

Meanwhile the 125-plus acres of the closed Thane mill sat idle [22]. Some investors grew impatient. In 2017 one minority shareholder publicly called the company “the complete disaster” [40]. Gautam’s own line was: “I believe in taking calculated risks, but not stupid risks” [22].

2015: the gift that made him the owner

In February 2015 Vijaypat Singhania transferred his 37.17% of Raymond, held through two investment companies and worth about Rs 1,000 crore, to Gautam [41] [77]. Gautam already ran the company. Now he controlled it too. That transfer is the root of both his wealth and the family feud (see “Controversies” below).

Raymond 2.0: real estate, debt and a big sale

From 2019 Gautam began a second, bigger reinvention. The idle land at Thane became the base of a real estate business. Raymond’s first project, Ten X Habitat, has 3,103 apartments. It handed over its first 900 in December 2022, two years ahead of its RERA deadline. Real estate sales reached Rs 1,115 crore in FY23 [29].

COVID-19 nearly knocked the company over first. In the April-June 2020 quarter, sales fell 88.6% and Raymond reported a consolidated loss of Rs 242 crore [39]. FY21 ended with a loss of Rs 297 crore. But net debt, which peaked at Rs 2,378 crore in September 2019, fell to Rs 689 crore by March 2023. FY23 brought record revenue of Rs 8,337 crore [29]. “We didn’t know the game. So, we wrote our own rulebook,” he said of the property venture [29].

In April 2023 came his biggest single deal. Raymond sold the FMCG business of Raymond Consumer Care, including Park Avenue deodorants and KamaSutra, to Godrej Consumer Products for Rs 2,825 crore in cash [5] [30]. Business Standard reported that the deal would leave Raymond net-debt-free [30]. KamaSutra, the brand that had launched his career 32 years earlier, was gone. (On the buyer, see our profile of Adi Godrej.)

Into aerospace

Seven months later Raymond went somewhere nobody expected. In November 2023 it agreed to buy 59.25% of Bengaluru’s Maini Precision Products, which makes precision parts for aerospace, defence and electric vehicles, for Rs 682 crore. The deal was done through Ring Plus Aqua, a subsidiary of its engineering arm JK Files & Engineering [4] [31]. The business now runs as JK Maini Precision Technology and JK Maini Global Aerospace [2].

Splitting into three

Gautam then took the group apart, deliberately.

  • Raymond Lifestyle (fabrics, Raymond, Park Avenue, ColorPlus, Parx and the shops) was demerged and listed on 5 September 2024. Shareholders got four Raymond Lifestyle shares for every five Raymond shares. It opened at Rs 3,020 on the NSE and immediately hit its 5% lower circuit [32].
  • Raymond Realty was demerged in May 2025 and listed on 1 July 2025 at Rs 1,000 on the NSE, with a listing-day market value of about Rs 6,408 crore [33].
  • Raymond Ltd, the old parent, became an engineering company focused on aerospace, defence and precision parts [2].

“I genuinely believe that this business’s sum of parts valuation will be exponential,” he said before the lifestyle listing. “We have completely transformed Raymond from Covid to today” [86]. He also made a point of staying: “I am not going anywhere… the buck stops with me” [86].

Where the businesses stand in 2026

  • Raymond Ltd (engineering): In July-September 2026 it reported revenue of Rs 655 crore, up 24%, and profit from continuing operations of Rs 32 crore, more than double a year earlier. It had net cash of about Rs 77 crore [35].
  • Raymond Lifestyle: Total income was a record Rs 2,125 crore in the September 2026 quarter, up 14%, with 1,634 stores [36]. The previous quarter, though, its loss widened to Rs 22.59 crore [38]. Its shares traded far below their listing price through 2026.
  • Raymond Realty: In FY26 total income rose 29% to Rs 3,039 crore, and bookings reached Rs 3,023 crore. Net debt was Rs 656 crore, and the company put the total development value of its projects at about Rs 42,000 crore [3]. By the June 2026 quarter, after new joint developments in Mumbai’s Parel and Kandivali, that figure had risen to about Rs 52,000 crore, and net debt to Rs 824 crore [37].

How his wealth is held

Gautam owns almost nothing in his own name; Raymond’s annual report lists just 29 shares held directly by him [1]. Control runs through promoter companies, chiefly J.K. Investors (Bombay) Ltd, J.K. Investo Trade (India) and J.K. Helene Curtis [1]. In a May 2026 filing, Raymond named Gautam Hari Singhania as the ultimate beneficial owner of J.K. Investors (Bombay) [2].

In 2026 the family began putting fresh money back in. Raymond’s board approved warrants worth about Rs 331 crore for J.K. Investors at Rs 497 each, mainly to fund the aerospace subsidiaries. On full conversion the promoter group’s stake would rise from 48.87% to 53.52% [2]. In September 2026 Raymond Realty approved a similar Rs 409 crore warrant issue to the same company [34].

Net worth: There is no reliable current figure. A US$1.4 billion estimate dating back more than a decade is still widely repeated, but it is not tied to any current Hurun or Forbes listing that we could verify. The promoter group’s stakes in the three listed companies have also lost value as their share prices fell in 2026. We therefore do not give a 2026 number.

The setbacks and failures

His career has had plenty of rough patches:

  • The diversification hangover (1990s). Cement, steel and synthetics left Raymond with Rs 905 crore of debt by 1999. It took Gautam five years of selling to clean up [13] [16].
  • Denim. The UCO venture, launched with big targets in 2006, was losing heavily by 2008 [27] [28].
  • Two crises, two loss years. Raymond lost money in FY09 and FY10 after the global crisis [22], and again in FY21 during COVID [29].
  • The IndiGo miss. He said no to investing in what became India’s largest airline [20] [80].
  • The demerged companies’ share prices. Raymond Lifestyle and Raymond Realty both listed well above where they traded in late 2026 [32] [33].
  • Family. He became estranged from his father, his brother’s family went to court, and his marriage broke down in public. All of this is covered below.

“Tough times don’t last, but tough men do,” he likes to say [22] [92]. In 2025 he put it this way: “Nobody has a free run all through life” [87].

Controversies and allegations

This section sets out the matters that have been reported widely or recorded by courts and regulators. None of them has resulted in a criminal conviction of Gautam Singhania.

The feud with his father, Vijaypat Singhania

Allegation: After the 2015 share transfer, Vijaypat said his son had pushed him out of the company and the family home. In August 2017 he went to the Bombay High Court. He claimed that Gautam and Raymond were not honouring a 2007 agreement that entitled him to a duplex in the rebuilt JK House, the family’s 36-storey tower on Mumbai’s Malabar Hill. His lawyer told the court that Gautam was squeezing him “out of everything” and that “all his perks - like a car and a driver - have been taken away” [43]. In 2018 Raymond removed him from the honorary title of chairman emeritus [48]. Vijaypat told AFP in 2019 that giving everything to his son was “the height of stupidity”, made under “emotional blackmail” [49] [50].

Response: On the removal, Gautam said: “It was the decision of the Board and the Board must have its reason to do whatever they did” [48]. He told AFP: “I am the victim. What have I done wrong?” [50]. In January 2019 he said he would step down as chairman of group companies other than Raymond Ltd, and said he was willing to sit down and talk to his father [51].

What happened next:

  • In 2017 the High Court judge urged the family to settle the matter “amicably” and told them it should not have reached court [44].
  • Gautam publicly opposed a plan to sell JK House flats to family members at about Rs 9,200 per sq ft, saying he would vote “against the resolution in the interest of the shareholders and company” [45] [46]. In 2019 Raymond’s shareholders rejected the sale by 97.67% [47].
  • Gautam and Raymond went to court to stop Vijaypat’s memoir, An Incomplete Life. On 4 November 2021 a Bombay High Court judge restrained its sale [53]. On 10 November 2021 a division bench set that order aside [52]. Pan Macmillan published the book in 2021 [11].
  • In March 2024 Gautam posted a photo with his father: “Happy to have my father at home today and seek his blessings” [54]. Days later Vijaypat said the meeting was “certainly not for coffee, nor to resolve our differences” [55].

Status: Vijaypat Singhania died on 28 March 2026. No reconciliation was confirmed before his death. Gautam posted “RIP. Om Shanti.” [56] [57]. As of 12 November 2026 we found no reported litigation over his estate.

The grandchildren’s suit and other family property cases

Allegation: In February 2015 Madhupati Singhania’s four children sued in the Bombay High Court. They asked the court to set aside the 1998 family agreement by which their father had given up his and their rights, calling it “malafide, illegal and arbitrary” [41] [42].

Response: Vijaypat and Gautam’s side relied on the 1998 agreement [41].

What happened next:

  • On 21 August 2015 the High Court refused interim relief to the grandchildren [41] [42].
  • In a separate case between branches of the wider Singhania family, the Supreme Court sat on a Sunday in April 2017. It ordered that a Juhu bungalow, held by Gautam’s branch, be handed to Hari Shankar Singhania of the Delhi branch after he deposited Rs 20 crore [78] [79].

Status: We found no reported final judgment in the grandchildren’s main suit as of 12 November 2026.

The separation from Nawaz Modi Singhania and governance questions

Allegation: On 13 November 2023 Gautam announced that he and his wife of more than three decades, Nawaz Modi Singhania, would “pursue different paths” [58]. Nawaz was then a director of Raymond Ltd. Over the following days she publicly made allegations against him, including physical assault and the use of company money for his personal benefit. Media reports also said she had sought a large share of his wealth for herself and their daughters [77] [62]. On 28 November 2023 the proxy adviser IiAS wrote an open letter. It urged Raymond’s independent directors to “undertake an independent investigation” and added: “If need be, we expect you to protect the company from its own promoters” [7] [59]. Raymond’s shares fell nearly 18% over ten trading sessions [59].

Response: Gautam blamed “unsubstantiated rumour mongering” and asked for privacy [58]. In an email to staff he wrote: “I remain resolute as Chairman & Managing Director… at Raymond, it is business as usual” [61]. Raymond’s independent directors said they had hired senior lawyer Berjis Desai to advise them and would protect minority shareholders. They also said the couple’s personal dispute was outside their remit [60].

What happened next:

  • In June 2024 IiAS recommended that shareholders vote against his reappointment as managing director, saying it was unclear whether an independent investigation had been done [63]. Shareholders reappointed him for five years from 1 July 2024 [64].
  • Nawaz resigned from Raymond’s board in March 2025, citing “personal reasons” [65].
  • In April 2025 one newspaper, citing unnamed family members, reported that the couple had reconciled [66]. Neither has confirmed this publicly.

Status: None of Nawaz’s allegations has been tested in court, and no outcome of an independent investigation has been made public. As of 12 November 2026 we found no reported court decree on the separation.

The customs case over 142 imported cars

Allegation: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence investigated the import of 142 cars, mostly vintage, between 2018 and 2021. It alleged that they were undervalued and misdeclared, routed through entities abroad, causing a duty loss of about Rs 230 crore. It named Gautam as the beneficial owner [67] [68].

Response: Raymond’s spokesperson called it an “erroneous calculation” [67]. A company executive described it as a “miscalculation rather than an intentional attempt to evade taxes” [68].

Status: Closed. J.K. Investors (Bombay) paid about Rs 328 crore, covering duty, interest and a 15% penalty, and the customs authorities closed the case, as reported in January 2024 [67] [68]. No court has ruled on whether there was any intent to evade duty.

SEBI penalty over JK House transactions

Allegation: SEBI found that Raymond had entered into related-party transactions without audit committee approval. Raymond had rented alternative homes, at about Rs 12 lakh a month, for promoter-family sub-tenants of JK House who paid Rs 7,500 a month. SEBI said the arrangement gave “unfair economic benefit to the promoters”. It also found that Raymond had failed to disclose family litigation and had reclassified promoters without following the rules [69] [70].

Response: Raymond argued that the lapses were “procedural and technical” [69].

Status: In November 2020 SEBI fined Raymond Rs 7 lakh [69]. We found no report of an appeal.

Income tax survey, 2025

Allegation: Between 25 and 30 September 2025 the Income Tax Department carried out a survey at offices of Raymond, Raymond Lifestyle and Raymond Realty [72] [71].

Response: The companies said they had given “full cooperation” and that the survey had been completed [71].

Status: As of 12 November 2026 no tax demand or finding from the survey has been made public.

The Maldives speedboat accident, March 2026

Allegation: A speedboat carrying seven people, including Gautam, capsized near Felidhoo in the Maldives’ Vaavu Atoll on the night of 19-20 March 2026. Rally driver Hari Singh and Cdr (retd) Mahesh Ramachandran died; both were presumed dead after searches were called off [75] [76]. The Maldivian outlet Atoll Times, citing information obtained from the authorities, reported that Gautam was at the wheel. Autocar India said the same “according to reports” [74] [76]. His departure for treatment in Mumbai was criticised in the Maldives [74].

Response: Raymond said he “suffered minor injuries following an unfortunate accident” and was recovering in Mumbai. His spokesperson blamed “a serious mechanical failure”, called speculation on social media “irresponsible”, and said he was supporting the search [73].

Status: Maldivian police said their investigation was continuing. As of 12 November 2026 we found no published findings, charges or civil claims.

Giving back

Most of Gautam’s giving runs through family trusts that Raymond’s CSR money also supports.

J.K. Trust, which he chairs [10], started in 1970 with a sheep farm in Dhule and carried out India’s first sheep embryo transfer in 1977 [8]. Its Gram Vikas Yojana, started in 1997, breeds better cattle in villages through artificial insemination. By early 2017 it ran 3,788 livestock centres in 10 states, had done more than 1.3 crore inseminations and reached about 45,000 villages [9].

Singhania Schools are his other big project. In June 2019 Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis opened the Sunitidevi Singhania School in Thane with about 1,500 students [90]. By 2023 Gautam said there were “seven Singhania schools across the country… educating over 20,000 young Indians” [85]. In Raymond’s 100th annual report he set a target to educate over one lakh children across India [1].

Raymond’s own CSR budget is modest because its profits have been modest. In FY25 it spent Rs 7.40 crore, just above its legal obligation of Rs 7.39 crore. That included Rs 5 crore for a school building in Thane and Rs 1.4 crore for a model goat farm in Chhattisgarh [1]. In 2019-20 Raymond spent Rs 1.52 crore, partly on a 1,000-bed COVID hospital in Thane [91].

The racer

Outside work, his public identity is cars. He founded the Super Car Club in India. In 2015 he raced in the Ferrari Challenge Europe and finished on the podium twice at the season opener at Monza, reported as a first for an Indian in the series [82]. “Winning is a mindset, if you step out with this mindset, coming second is just not enough,” he said [81]. In 2013 he joked: “I am too old for F1… I can’t be that competitive, though I can tell you that I won’t be so far off either” [80]. He was later elected to the FIA World Motor Sport Council, the governing body of world motor sport, representing India’s federation [83].

Succession

Gautam has two daughters, Niharika and Nisa [58]. Both hold small shareholdings as members of the promoter group [1]. Neither has a publicly reported executive role at Raymond.

He has long argued for professional management. In 2019 he said: “I have seen so many places where for lack of clarity, succession planning, and professionalising, it’s a loss of value.” He added that he would train his children “if they want to get into business… But it’s their decision” [84].

He is building a professional bench. Raymond Lifestyle has a separate managing director, Sunil Kataria, with Gautam as executive chairman [88]. In 2025 Raymond appointed Atul Singh, the former head of Coca-Cola India, as executive vice chairman. Gautam said the company was “at an inflection point” [89]. His own term as managing director of Raymond runs to 2029 [64].

What his journey teaches

Selling is a skill, not a defeat. Gautam’s two biggest moves were exits: cement, steel and synthetics in 1999-2004, and the FMCG business, KamaSutra included, in 2023. Each sale paid down debt and funded the next bet [22] [30].

Idle assets are hidden capital. The Thane mill land sat unused for years. Turned into housing, it became a business with Rs 3,000 crore of annual bookings [22] [3].

Brand building can be a first job. His first big success was not a factory but a marketing idea: making a condom a lifestyle product. It taught him how much a name is worth [24] [23].

Splitting a group shows what each part is worth, good or bad. The demergers let investors value lifestyle, property and engineering separately. Since listing, both demerged stocks have traded well below their opening prices [86] [32] [33].

Governance follows the promoter home. A father’s lawsuit, a family flat deal and a separation all became shareholder issues. In a listed family company, the line between private and corporate can disappear quickly [47] [7] [69].

Give away control carefully. Vijaypat’s warning, made in public and repeated in his memoir, was: “Your wealth can and should be passed on to your children, but only after your death” [49] [11]. Whatever side one takes, the 2015 gift and what followed is one of Indian business’s best-known lessons in succession.

For other family business stories, read our profiles of Harsh Goenka, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Nusli Wadia. For the changing place of textiles in India’s economy, see India’s electronics exports overtake textiles.

A profile for general reading, based on public records and reporting as of 12 November 2026. Not investment, tax or legal advice.

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  39. Raymond records loss of Rs 242 cr in Q1 - Business Standard, Sep 2020
  40. Raymond 'the complete disaster', says minority shareholder - BloombergQuint, Mar 2017
  41. Bombay HC denies interim relief in Singhania family property dispute - The Economic Times, Aug 2015
  42. No interim relief for Singhania's grandkids in property row - Business Standard, Aug 2015
  43. How India's Raymond man went from rich to broke - Deccan Chronicle, Aug 2017
  44. Singhania son to meet to settle property row, HC told - Business Standard, Sep 2017
  45. Would vote against JK House sale plan: Raymond's Gautam Singhania - Business Standard, Jun 2017
  46. Fight for JK House: gloves are off as Singhanias brace for AGM - Business Standard, Jun 2017
  47. Raymond shareholders against sale of JK House to promoters - Free Press Journal, May 2019
  48. Raymond stock dips on news of Vijaypat Singhania sacking as chairman emeritus - Business Today, Oct 2018
  49. Indian tycoon Vijaypat Singhania regrets giving away fortune - Dawn / AFP, Jan 2019
  50. Indian father and son battle for billion-dollar Raymond Group empire - Gulf News / AFP, Jan 2019
  51. Raymond chairman Gautam Singhania to step down from group companies - People Matters, Jan 2019
  52. Bombay High Court sets aside order restraining Vijaypat Singhania's autobiography - LiveLaw, Nov 2021
  53. Bombay HC restrains Vijaypat Singhania's autobiography - Free Press Journal, Nov 2021
  54. Happy to have my father at home today - Business Today, Mar 2024
  55. Vijaypat Singhania denies reconciliation with son Gautam - Free Press Journal, Mar 2024
  56. Raymond Group's former chairman Vijaypat Singhania dies at 87 - Business Today, Mar 2026
  57. Vijaypat Singhania (1938-2026): industrialist, aviator, institution-builder - Moneylife, Mar 2026
  58. Gautam Singhania announces separation from wife: full statement - Free Press Journal, Nov 2023
  59. Raymond independent directors must protect company from promoters if need be: IiAS - Business Today, Nov 2023
  60. Raymond reiterates commitment to protect interests of minority shareholders - Business Standard, Dec 2023
  61. Fully committed to smooth functioning of Raymond, business as usual: CMD Gautam Singhania - Outlook Business, Nov 2023
  62. Raymond's Gautam Singhania, Nawaz Modi begin settlement talks - WION, Dec 2023
  63. IiAS urges Raymond shareholders to vote against Gautam Singhania's reappointment - Business Today, Jun 2024
  64. Gautam Singhania reappointed as Raymond MD for five years - Business Today, Jun 2024
  65. Raymond in focus as Nawaz Modi Singhania resigns as director - Upstox News, Mar 2025
  66. Gautam Singhania, Nawaz Modi reunite, say family members - Free Press Journal, Apr 2025
  67. Gautam Singhania's JK Investors pays Rs 328 cr penalty in customs case - Business Standard, Jan 2024
  68. Raymond Group's Gautam Singhania pays Rs 328 cr over duty on 142 cars - Business Today, Jan 2024
  69. Raymond fined for violations; SEBI finds governance failure - Moneylife / IANS, Nov 2020
  70. SEBI gives notice to Raymond on market rule violations - Free Press Journal, May 2019
  71. Income Tax department concludes survey at Raymond group offices - Storyboard18, Oct 2025
  72. Income tax officials conduct survey action at Raymond offices - Morung Express / IANS, Sep 2025
  73. Gautam Singhania suffers minor injuries after speedboat accident - Business Today, Mar 2026
  74. Speedboat accident near Felidhoo - Atoll Times, Mar 2026
  75. Rally driver Hari Singh, Arjuna awardee M. Ramachandran missing after Maldives speedboat accident - ThePrint, Mar 2026
  76. Hari Singh presumed dead as search is called off - Autocar India, Mar 2026
  77. Complete man, complete chaos: Singhania's feuds - ThePrint, Mar 2026
  78. Supreme Court Sunday hearing on Singhania Juhu property - The Quint, May 2017
  79. Sunday sitting of Supreme Court in Singhania dispute - Bar & Bench, May 2017
  80. Gee on the track - Business Standard, Feb 2013
  81. Speed Racer - Outlook Business, Nov 2016
  82. Gautam Singhania gets double podium at Ferrari Challenge Europe - CarDekho, Apr 2015
  83. Gautam Singhania elected to FIA World Motor Sport Council - evo India, 2017
  84. Gautam Singhania reveals his business philosophy - Eastern Eye, Oct 2019
  85. Gautam Singhania writes: from textiles to realty, Raymond grew with the nation - Outlook Business, Aug 2023
  86. Shareholder value creation at the heart of demerger: Gautam Singhania - Business Standard, Sep 2024
  87. Would be a happy man if Raymond continues its legacy - Business Today, Jul 2025
  88. Raymond Lifestyle names Gautam Hari Singhania executive chairman - Storyboard18, Dec 2024
  89. Raymond onboards Atul Singh as executive vice chairman - Tech Observer, Nov 2025
  90. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurates school in Thane - Free Press Journal, Jun 2019
  91. Raymond spends Rs 1.52 crore on CSR projects in 2019-20 - The CSR Universe, Oct 2020
  92. Gautam Hari Singhania's advice to new-age entrepreneurs - Free Press Journal, Apr 2022

Frequently asked questions

Who is Gautam Singhania?

Gautam Hari Singhania is an Indian businessman who has led the Raymond Group since 1999-2000. He is Chairman and Managing Director of Raymond Ltd, Executive Chairman of Raymond Lifestyle and the promoter of Raymond Realty.

What is Gautam Singhania's net worth in 2026?

There is no reliable 2026 figure. A US$1.4 billion estimate from more than a decade ago is still widely quoted, but it is not tied to any current Hurun or Forbes listing that could be verified. His wealth is held mainly through promoter companies such as J.K. Investors (Bombay) that control the three listed Raymond companies.

How did Gautam Singhania start his career?

He joined the family's JK group in 1986 and made his name by launching the KamaSutra condom brand in 1991 with a bold advertising campaign. He joined the Raymond board in 1990, became managing director in June 1999 and chairman in September 2000.

What is the dispute between Gautam Singhania and his father Vijaypat Singhania?

In 2015 Vijaypat Singhania gave his 37.17% stake in Raymond to Gautam. He later accused his son of pushing him out of the company and the family home, went to the Bombay High Court over a JK House flat, and wrote a memoir about it. No reconciliation was confirmed before Vijaypat died on 28 March 2026.

When was Gautam Singhania born, and what is his education?

He was born on 9 September 1965. Raymond's filings describe him as a commerce graduate.

What happened in the Gautam Singhania speedboat accident?

A speedboat carrying Gautam Singhania and six others capsized off Felidhoo in the Maldives on the night of 19-20 March 2026. Rally driver Hari Singh and Cdr (retd) Mahesh Ramachandran died. Singhania had minor injuries; his spokesperson blamed a mechanical failure, and Maldivian police said their investigation was continuing.

Who will succeed Gautam Singhania at Raymond?

He has not named a successor. His daughters Niharika and Nisa are members of the promoter group but have no publicly reported executive roles. His term as Raymond's managing director runs to 2029.

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