Earlier this year, Castel’s daughter and one of his nephews tried to unseat the CEO that the family patriarch picked to oversee the group. The dispute has reached Singapore’s Supreme Court and could go to trial later this year.
Pierre Castel began planning for succession more than three decades ago. The French billionaire, founder of one of the world’s largest drinks empires, consolidated ownership of his business in a company in Gibraltar, then created a foundation in Liechtenstein, before finally setting up a trust in Singapore.
Castel built his eponymous conglomerate from a tiny wine and fresh-produce operation around Bordeaux in the 1940s into an international company worth about US$10 billion ($12.9 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It spans breweries, soft drinks producers and plantations across Africa and had EUR6.5 billion ($7.4 billion) in annual sales. The succession process was supposed to shield that business from tax and prevent a family conflict after his death. At the age of 99, it’s now coming back to haunt him.
