Born to Indian migrants on 9th December 1925, Abdul Karim Popat started working at the age of 14 years, earning a salary of about 100 Kenyan shillings a month.
Being a firstborn with parents and siblings to take care of, he would work multiple jobs while also buying and selling used cars as a side business.
Abdul Karim would open his first showroom called Deluxe Motors on Nairobi’s Koinange Street in 1945 and build upon it into the conglomerate that Simba Corp is today.
Simba Corp is a multimillion-dollar group that owns Kenyan franchises for Mitsubishi Fuso trucks, Mahindra pick-ups, Ashok Leyland trucks, Proton Holdings vehicles, Mitsubishi vehicles, BMW Cars, SAME Tractors, Field King farm implements, OTMA farm machinery, and AVIS car rentals.
Over the years, the group’s business has diversified into hospitality, real estate, financial services, tracking services, and investments in Europe, Canada, Dubai, Switzerland, Gibraltar, and the Virgin Islands.
Simba Corp’s humble beginnings are a testament to the old man’s years of hard work, perseverance, and tenacity.
It was when Mr. Abdul Karim Popat passed away in 2013, that the world got to know that things had not been all rosy with his sons on the family front.
The sons’ commercial activities
Abdul Karim’s first son, Azim Popat lived in Canada and did not participate much in the day-to-day running of the Kenyan-based Simba Corporation.
Azim instead ran the family’s hotel, Plaza 500 in Vancouver, Canada in what court papers revealed was his way of staying away from his father.
The second son, Alnashir Popat was involved in the family business until 2007 when their father appointed the lastborn son, Adil Popat to the CEO’s position.
Alnashir would, as a result of irreconcilable differences, want out of the Simba Corporation business.
His father bought back Simba Corp shares initially assigned to him for US$ 8,500,049, essentially severing ties.
Alnashir then invested in other interests, the most notable being Imperial Bank where his shares soon surpassed his father’s.
As the single majority shareholder, Alnashir would serve as the bank’s board chairman for many years.
Imperial Bank would however collapse in 2015 following years of undetected embezzlement by the bank’s Chief Executive Officer.
The lastborn, Adil Popat always worked side by side with his father.
He took over from his father in 2007 and engineered an astronomical expansion that saw Popat’s business empire grow into a conglomerate.
Even after stepping aside from the CEO’s seat in 2018, he has remained an executive chair of the group’s board.
The inheritance battles
First to contest the patriarch’s will was Azim, the eldest son.
While Azim was allocated a part of the old man’s estate, he filed a suit in a Nairobi court accusing the younger brother Adil of denying him his rightful share.
Azim claimed that outside the properties identified in the 2008 will, his younger brother hid several offshore properties and trusts that belonged to their father.
Among the contested assets were Almancil Settlement (a trust in Guernsey), a trust in Dubai, bank accounts in Switzerland, a Gibraltar firm Seagrace Limited, a share portfolio called UBS in Switzerland.
Others were Virgin Islands-based firms Penrose Properties and Millgate Limited, two beach plots in Portugal and Canada, and shares in London-based Thames Water utility company.
Azim and Adil would eventually come to an out-of-court settlement and agree on a mutual formula for sharing the inheritance.
The disinherited son
The next court battle was filed by the second son, Alnashir against the two siblings Azim and Adil.
In Abdul Karim’s will, his second son, Alnashir was not awarded anything.
Alnashir contested the Will in a Kenyan court seeking orders that the Will be set aside and the deceased’s estate be shared equally among the three sons.
In response to the suit, the brothers Azim and Adil, highlighted Alnashir’s fallout with their father and sought orders that the estate be distributed per the Will of the deceased.
In a rare testament to Alnashir’s relationship with the father, a bitter and emotional letter from a son to a father was presented in court.
Alnashir accused his father of playing favorites with Adil from way back in their childhood.
Alnashir wrote that he was not cared for and always felt that he was denied the fatherly love and guidance that he so desperately needed.
His letter stated that when he joined the family business, after graduation, he was assigned work at the bottom of the hierarchy in the stores department yet when Adil graduated, he did not have to start at the bottom and was immediately given better employment terms.
Court Verdict
The court would in its verdict uphold the Will and its exclusion of Alnashir citing the need to not interfere with the deceased’s express wishes.
However, Alnashir would proceed and appeal that decision at the appellate (higher) court.
And the appeal court would rule in his favour.
In the October 2021 decision, the Court of Appeal ordered the High Court Family Division at Mombasa, Kenya to oversee the re-distribution of Abdul Karim Popat’s properties in a way that accords Alnashir Popat a fair share of the inheritance.
