World: Family battle for control of Castel continues to play out in public

Four of the five branches of the Castel family, owners of a €6.9bn ($8bn) global beverage and wine company, have ostensibly issued a statement on the 28th August 2026 distancing themselves from Romy Castel, daughter of founder Pierre Castel. For nearly a year, Romy Castel has attempted to oust the company’s first non-family CEO, Grégory Clerc, in a dispute over control of the business. The family statement has backed Clerc and asked for an end to the ongoing disruptions. However, Romy Castel has questioned its validity and it looks likely that a legal battle over control of Castel will continue to play out, TrendType reported on September 3.

Castel Group is the world’s third-largest wine producer and owns the Nicolas retail chain and extensive vineyards in France. In Africa, it is the second-largest brewer, holding market leadership in countries including Angola, Cameroon, and Cote d’Ivoire. Its operations are managed through regional subsidiaries, such as SBM (Société des Boissons du Maroc), in Morocco.

Castel is owned by a Singapore-based trust whose ultimate beneficiaries are split into five family branches, each holding 20% indirectly. This arrangement was put in place by founder Pierre Castel, who is 99 and still alive, so that no one branch of the family could dominate the others. The Castel statement has stated that Romy Castel represents one branch out of five and is not entitled to speak for the family. It has called for governance continuity and for management to be able to carry out its responsibilities without further disruption.

Romy Castel has responded alongside her cousins Alain and Philippe. They said they were neither consulted nor gave any mandate for the 28th August statement. Crucially, they have disputed the signatures, and said only two branches supported it rather than four. They have also restated that shareholders voted by more than 70% on 2nd February 2026 to dismiss CEO Grégory Clerc, who has nonetheless remained in place during this dispute.

Clerc, 41, is a former tax lawyer who advised the family before becoming the first outsider to run the group in 2023. He was brought in after Swiss authorities fined Pierre Castel €350m ($380m) for failing to declare dividends over 30 years.

Clerc separated family ownership from management control through a Singaporean trust, which he says protects the business from inheritance disputes, but which parts of the family see as a mechanism to lock them out. He also began replacing longstanding Castel appointees with external hires, including installing a new executive to run Brasserie BB Lomé in Togo in November 2024.

In December 2025, Clerc removed Alain Castel from the boards of Cassiopée in Singapore and D.F. Holding in Luxembourg, entities that consolidate large parts of the group’s operations. The heirs retaliated on 8th January 2026 with a first attempt to remove Clerc, which was blocked on procedural grounds despite the family claiming it held 97% of the voting rights represented.

In February 2026, Romy and Alain Castel announced that shareholders at the group’s Singapore holding company, Investment Beverage Business Management (IBBM), had voted to remove Clerc and chairman Pierre Baer. The IBBM board rejected the resolutions as not validly passed, resulting in contradictory statements from the family and the board about whether Clerc remained in post. Clerc has remained in post.

The conflict has since moved into the courts and into criminal complaints. The family obtained a temporary order from the Singapore High Court preventing Clerc and Baer from acting as IBBM directors while proceedings continue. Castel’s management responded in June 2026 by removing Romy and Alain Castel from the board of Castel Vins, and ousting Romy Castel from Somdia, the group’s agricultural business.

Clerc also filed a complaint accusing Romy Castel of forging a signature on a power of attorney document. She denies the allegation and has filed countercomplaints.

04 September, 2026