Alok Sanghi spent much of his career at Sanghi Industries, the cement company his father built. Following its acquisition by Ambuja Cements in 2023, he stepped down as executive director and turned his attention to Resolute Corp, a family office with $100 million in assets under management.

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Today, his investments span public and private markets, commodities, luxury real estate in Dubai and a professional volleyball team.

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His decision reflects a broader shift among India's wealthy families. Rather than keeping their wealth tied to the businesses that created it, some are selling their stakes and building diversified investment portfolios.

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"Now business owners want to separate the two," Sanghi told Bloomberg , "so that the fate of the business and families are de-coupled."

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Separating the Family Business From Family Wealth

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For families whose wealth is concentrated in a single business, succession has traditionally meant passing that business to the next generation.

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Sanghi chose a different approach. Following the sale of a majority stake in the family business, he built a family office with investments across several asset classes, reducing the family's dependence on a single company and industry.

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He is not alone. The Manchanda family built Homemade Baker's into a business generating $1 billion in annual revenue before selling a majority stake to Growtheum Capital Partners last year. Puneet Manchanda now plans to establish a family office, with his son joining the investment business rather than the bakery.

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Both families illustrate how succession can involve passing on wealth without necessarily passing on responsibility for the original business.

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Why the Older Generation Is Divided

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Not everyone welcomes this approach.

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Uday Kotak, founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, criticized wealthy heirs  for "taking the easy way out" by managing financial assets rather than building businesses. Raamdeo Agrawal, co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, has similarly emphasized the importance of learning to operate a business.

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Yet younger family members are increasingly exploring alternatives. Vikrant Agarwal of Proxima Capital Services says he regularly hears from heirs interested in establishing family offices because they no longer want to work in their family businesses.

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The growing family office industry is making that transition easier. According to PwC, India had more than 300 formal family offices in 2024, compared with just 45 in 2018. 

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Not Every Family Is Selling

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Other prominent Indian families are taking different approaches.

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The Ambani and Adani children continue to expand their families' businesses into industries such as technology and data centers. Meanwhile, Gaurav Burman, a fifth-generation heir to Dabur Group, manages the family's investment arm while professional managers oversee its consumer goods business.

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Families can also sell a partial stake to private equity while remaining involved in the company. EY India estimates that approximately $18 billion in buyout and control transactions involving family- and founder-owned businesses took place between 2020 and 2025.

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These different approaches show that succession no longer has to mean choosing between selling the family business and running it indefinitely.

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What This Means for Family Office Succession

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The Sanghi and Manchanda stories raise an important question for family offices: Does the next generation need to inherit the business, or should it have the freedom to build something different?

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For some families, that means continuing to operate and expand the original company. For others, it means establishing a family office, diversifying their investments or pursuing new business opportunities.

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Whatever the approach, families need to plan how ownership, investment responsibilities and decision-making will transfer between generations.  Having a clear view of their wealth is an important part of that process.

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MYFO brings investments, entities and financial documents into one place, helping families manage their wealth across generations. Book a demo  to learn more.

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 Sources

Palepu, Advait, and Alisha Sachdev. "Young, Rich, Family Office. Indian Heirs Worry Their Elders." Bloomberg, September 21–22, 2026.

MarketScreener and CemNet, Sanghi Industries board changes, December 2023.

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