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Jumabhoy in 1950.

Ameerali Rajabali Jumabhoy (28 December 1925 – 24 November 2020) was a Singaporean businessman who founded Scotts Holdings Limited. He was a member of the Jumabhoy family, who were, at their peak, known as the "wealthiest non-Chinese family in South-East Asia". However, he was later embroiled in a feud with his family over the control of Scotts which led to the sale of the company to CapitaLand.

Early life and education

Jumabhoy was born in Singapore on 28 December 1925. The son of Rajabali Jumabhoy, he belonged to the "upper class Muslim Anglophiles". He first studied at the Anglo-Chinese School. He completed his O‑Level examinations when the Japanese had first begun bombing the island as part of World War II. He evacuated with the rest of his family before the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, which began in February 1942 and lasted til September 1945. They had left Singapore on a ship organised by Jawaharlal Nehru. However, as an Indian, he was given a cabin below deck and he was only allowed above once or twice a day for exercise. This reportedly "shaped his perspective".

Jumabhoy first attended the Ismail Yusuf College, where he remained for two years. He then studied at the St. Xavier's College in Mumbai, from which he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree. In this period, he became active in Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India Movement. He joined a student union led by Prabhakar Kashinath Kunte and participated in a rally which had resulted in him being injured by the police and jailed at the Azad Maidan police station.

Career

Jumabhoy returned to Singapore with his family after the end of the occupation. He began working for the government soon after. By March 1952, he was the manager of his father's company, which had been renamed R. Jumabhoy & Sons in 1948. By June 1953, he was serving as a member of the committee of the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He then drafted the Employee's Provident Fund Bill, which went into power in 1955. As the manager of R. Jumabhoy & Sons, which was initially a trading firm, he diversified the business into shipping and maritime engineer. In January of that year, he was appointed the Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce's representative on the Board of Governors of the Singapore Polytechnic, which had been established the previous year.

In the 1970s, under Jumabhoy's guidance, his son Rafiq ventured into real estate and Scotts Holdings, of which he was an owner, was founded by April 1980. Under the company, the family's property along Orchard Road was redeveloped into the Scotts Shopping Centre. Completed in 1982, it was the first managed mall and featured Picnic, the first establishment in a Singaporean mall to be called a "food court". Jumabhoy also founded Ascott, reportedly the country's "first branded serviced apartments", in 1984. He was among the 21 citizens who were selected to take the pledge in "The Pledge to Take a Nation" ceremony, which was a part of the 1986 Singapore National Day parade celebrations. In February of the following year, he was appointed a member of the 18-man managament committee of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore.

Jumabhoy later became the chairman of the Scotts Group of Companies. By 1990, the family had become the owners of Lau Pa Sat, which they renovated and reopened as a festival market. Scotts went public in 1991. In June 1992, Jumabhoy led a 14-man trade delegation to South Africa after Singapore lifted a UN-sanctioned trade boycott of the country. At the family's peak, they reportedly had over $600 million in assets. They were called the "wealthiest non-Chinese family in South-East Asia". According to Ravi Velloor of The Straits Times, at the peak of Jumabhoy's career, a dinner invitation from the family was "considered a huge event with upwardly mobile Indians in Singapore." He was among the 14 businessmen led by Senior Minister and former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on a four-day official visit to Hungary. In January of the following year, he was a part of the 37-man delegation of "corporate heavyweights" led by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Foreign Minister S. Jayakumar, Minister for Trade and Industry Yeo Cheow Tong and Minister of State for Labour Goh Chee Wee on a visit to India. In total, he was involved in 22 overseas missions as a delegate.

Feud and legal dispute

In 1995, the company abandoned a project which was to involve the development of a "huge township" in Gurgaon, India as the land on which it was to have been built had not been pruchased with the permission of the company's board of directors. This led to a feud within the family. On 6 September 1995, it was announced in a brief statement that Ameerali would be taking over his son Rafiq's position as the chief executive officer of Scotts Holdings, though Rafiq's brother Iqbal would continue on as executive director. The Business Times reported that "some people" believed that this was caused by a "long-running family dispute". On 9 September, The Business Times reported that the Commercial Affairs Department was then investigating the company. It was also reported that Rafiq had been removed as chief executive officer by the board due to a "combination of factors" and that Ameerali, who had been in "semi-retirement", was "dragged back." On 10 October, Ameerali's father, along with six other members of the family, filed a lawsuit against Ameerali, Rafiq and Iqbal, claiming that the three had received the income of the family's 1957 trust, which was meant to benefit the entire family. Additionally, Rajabali disapproved of how the trust's shares were being used for "speculative activity" through the Scotts Investment Company. The other plaintiffs comprised Ameerali's brothers Yusuf and Mustafa, his younger sister Perin, and Mustafa's three sons Anwar, Faez and Saleem, who claimed to have been "sidelined" after Scotts went public.

At a board meeting of the Scotts Investment Company on 10 April 1996, Ameerali and Iqbal were "outmanoeuvred", and the company was now "firmly" under the control of Rafiq, Yusuf and Mustafa. It was declared that Ameerali and Iqbal were no longer representatives to the board of Scotts Holdings. After this, the two applied to the courts for a receiver and manager for the Scotts Investments Company. The Business Times reported then that their positions as directors of Scotts Holdings "now [hung] in the balance." On 30 April, Ameerali was removed as the executive chairman of Scotts Holdings, which, according Ven Sreenivasan of The Business Times, indicated that the company was now under the control of Rafiq, Yusuf and Mustafa. In June, Ameerali announced that he would be taking legal action against Scotts Holdings, claiming that he had been "ousted" from his position in the company. He further argued that this was "invalid" as it was "motivated by personal interests" and "not passed bona fide for the benefit of Scotts."

In July 1996, Ameerali was granted an interim injuction to prevent the company from "acting on a resolution to remove him". It was decided that the court would hear his case fully at a later date and as such, he was reinstated as the executive chairman of Scotts in the meantime. However, on 20 September, he resigned from the position. In January 1997, the High Court dismissed Iqbal and Ameerali's application for receivers and managers for Scotts Investments."

Personal life and death

In March 1950, Jumabhoy married Amina Dharamsey. He had met her through his relatives while in Mumbai. In July 1951, he was elected the chairman of the "House" Committee of the local branch of the Rotary Club. In 1992, Amina died. Vellor reported that those close to the family have claimed that the feud which surfaced later "would have been managed if the strong-willed Amina had lived."