Listen to this article
Covid claimed many lives and made many families suffer. This is a story of one such family, where the breadwinner and his wife died of covid leaving behind a huge business debt of over Rs.13 crore. They had 4 children - 1 boy and 3 girls.
Thukral family lent a helping hand when the family needed it most and helped the family in business succession. The MFD guided the family not only to repay debt but also to run the business efficiently.
Today, the family has cleared debt and accumulated a surplus of close to Rs. 4 crore. Their current turnover has now increased to Rs.44 crore per annum.
Recognising this, Axis Mutual Fund and Cafemutual felicitated Rashmi and Ankush Thukral from Thukral Capital, Bhadohi with the prestigious ‘Sanjeevani MFD Awards’ at Cafemutual Ideas Fest 2024 (CIF 24) under the Outstanding Asset Allocator category.
The Sanjeevani Outstanding Asset Allocator Award honours MFDs for assisting a family in becoming debt-free in their business and ensuring successful business succession.
Sharing this emotional story, Ankush said that the biggest challenge was choosing one successor to lead the business. “The children were completely in a devastating situation because within a span of five days, both the breadwinner (Father) and his wife (Mother) passed away and the business was left to children who had no knowledge about it. The main task for us was to make someone lead the business and clear the debt of over Rs.13 crore.”
“We encouraged all the kids to come together and ignore any opinion from relatives. We divided the business equally among the surviving children, without enforcing Muslim succession. We gradually assigned responsibilities and accountability for different parts of the business which turned out to be successful,” he said,
Ankush further said, “We guided them for a year on business matters, focusing on keeping good relations with the workers and negotiating with debtors to buy more time to stabilize the finances. We advised them to stop any expansion plan or unnecessary spending. In matter of three years, we managed to bring down the debt from Rs.13 crore to Rs.3 crore along with smooth functioning of the business.”
Currently, the family has cleared all the debt and have a surplus of Rs.4 crore. Their current turnover has increased to Rs.44 crore per annum, thanks in large part due to guidance from Thukral family.
Sharing some learnings, Ankush said that the most important lesson from the situation is to include children in the family business or have a backup plan ready in case something unexpected happens. Nomination is equally important along with a family trustee, which can help the next generation to be on the right track in uncertain situations.