Kirloskar Brothers Limited (KBL) has refuted and objected to the statement issued by Atul and Rahul Kirloskar that the company has been spending approximately ₹274 crore towards payment of professional and legal expenses for Sanjay Kirloskar.
“The statement claims that approximately ₹274 crores has been paid by KBL towards professional and legal expenses ever since the disputes arose in 2016 and alleges that a large part of this was for facilitating private disputes of KBL’s Managing Director. We wish to clarify that the legal fees over the last 7 years are approximately ₹70 crores,” KBL said in a statement issued on Sunday. KBL added Atul and Rahul Kirloskar have wrongly assumed that all these expenses are legal expenses. The major portion of the said ₹274 crores is professional fees paid to various Indian and overseas reputed consultants to improve the company’s business.
KBL stated that these expenses are towards tax matters, labour matters, arbitration pertaining to project business, cases related to domestic and international projects, patents, property documents, and for overseas business as KBL is the only MNC in the group with manufacturing subsidiaries on 4 continents.
“For a company with a consolidated turnover of over ₹2500 crore per annum, legal expenses of ₹70 crore over last 7 years is logical and does not support any allegation made,” KBL added.
“Kirloskar Industries Limited (KIL) is the largest shareholder and has not written to KBL over the last several years on their concerns for payment of professional and legal expenses ever since the disputes arose on or about 2016. In fact, they have voted in favour of accounts and dividends every year. And now, in 2022, Mr. Atul Kirloskar, Chairman of KIL has issued a statement with these baseless allegations” KBL added in the statement.