Chosen by the founder in 2023 and voted off a key board in 2026.
A court has just said the vote stands.
The company is Castel, the French drinks group behind the Nicolas wine shops and one of Africa's biggest brewers. Annual sales are more than €6.5 billion.
Its founder, Pierre Castel, is 99. When he retired, he handed the running of it to an outsider, Gregory Clerc and not to his family.
The family still owns it.
Part of that family now wants him out.
On 2 October, Singapore's High Court upheld a 71.43% vote removing him from the board of the Singapore company that manages the fund which owns the group. He is still chief executive, with the holding company boards behind him.
The same thing happens in businesses a fraction of the size.
Owners can spend years deciding who takes over. They spend far less time getting the other shareholders behind that person.
It doesn't take all of them to derail a handover, but just one who never accepted the choice.
You can appoint a successor, but you can't appoint their support.
If you named yours tomorrow, who would back them?
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