SINGAPORE - A bitter family battle over one of Africa's biggest drinks empires spilled into a Singapore courtroom, where the daughter of French billionaire Pierre Castel won a significant victory in her fight with the chief executive of his beer and wine business.
On October 2, 2026, the Singapore High Court ruled that Romy Castel's votes to remove Castel Group chief executive Gregory Clerc and Pierre Francois Alec Baer from the board of Investment Beverage Business Management, known as IBBM, were valid. The court upheld resolutions passed at an extraordinary general meeting of the company on February 2. Romy Castel's side said the decision upheld her voting rights, though the full judgment had not been published.
The ruling does not remove Clerc as chief executive of the wider group. Cassiopee and DF Holding, two of the group's main holding companies, responded that IBBM is not the parent company of the Castel empire, that the board changes do not transfer control, and that they retain full confidence in Clerc.
The dispute turns on a fiendishly complex ownership chain. IBBM sits near the top of the structure, managing the Investment Beverage Business Fund, which was valued at about S$8 billion in July and owns 100 percent of Cassiopee. Cassiopee in turn owns DF Holding and the companies that run the group's breweries, wineries and sugar estates across Africa. A trustee, SG Trust (Asia), exercises the fund's rights on IBBM's instructions.
Romy Castel holds 24.33 percent of IBBM. Two allies, Gilles Martignac and Guy De Clercq, hold 24 percent each, giving the three a combined 72.33 percent, enough to dominate votes at the IBBM level. But control of the empire's operating companies runs through the fund and its trustees, who are working to replace IBBM as fund manager and have already chosen a candidate. Romy Castel has gone to court to block that move, meaning the dispute is far from over.
At its heart, the case is a founder's succession drama. Pierre Castel built the group into a colossal African brewing and wine business, and the question of who controls it after him has divided the family and its professional managers. The Singapore proceedings reflect the city-state's role as a neutral venue for the holding structures of global family empires, with trusts and investment vehicles domiciled in the republic.
For observers of family business disputes, the Castel saga is a textbook illustration of how control can fragment across holding companies, funds and trustees, allowing rival factions to claim victory in different forums. The October ruling gave Romy Castel momentum, but with the trustees moving against IBBM and the operating companies backing Clerc, the battle for the Castel empire is set to continue.