Sapura founder sues sons for millions

KUALA LUMPUR: The publicity-shy Tan Sri Shamsuddin Abdul Kadir of Sapura Group is in the news but not for his entrepreneurial skills.

He is taking his two sons to court.

Shamsuddin, who got married to then 30-year-old Mariam Parineh Nariman from Iran in 2007, had filed a lawsuit against his children at the Shah Alam High Court in February.

It was reported that Shamsuddin, who is the chairman and founder of Sapura Group, is demanding the return of shares and properties valued in excess of RM450mil from his two sons, Datuk Shahril Shamsuddin and Shahri­man Shamsuddin.

It is learnt that court papers did not explain the reasons Shamsuddin, 80, is demanding the return of the assets, which include a 15% share in the family’s private investment vehicle called Sapura Holdings Sdn Bhd and other properties in the Klang Valley and Selangor.

It is also learnt that the claim stated that Shamsuddin “gratuitously and without consideration” transferred the block of shares in Sapura Holdings and a total of 23 parcels of property to a private investment holding company Brothers Capital between 2007 and 2010.

The Star had carried a report in June 2007 on how the father and son had built and fashioned a family-owned business empire.

It was stated that when Shamsuddin founded the group in 1975, the company’s core business was essentially auto, defence, energy and later, ICT.

However, in the late 1990s, when his son Shahril took over the reins and after a protracted lull, he slowly, but gradually, turned the group into what it is today – largely an oil and gas company.

It said the group had transformed itself into the country’s most integrated and largest oil and gas service provider.