Brothers TVS show the way: separate amicably

Some do it with a lot of sound and fury. But there are others who do it quietly and respectfully.

Venu and Gopal Srinivasan of the TVS group have taken the second route.

According to a report in the Economic Times today, the brothers have amicably parted ways by reorganising the businesses of holding company Sundaram Clayton.

With the restructuring that happened in May, all automobile businesses came under Venu, while other investments related businesses went to Gopal.

Sundaram Clayton had four arms with completely different business focuses-Anusha Investments, TVS Motor, TVS Investments, and Sundarama Investment.

The operating companies have been separated “to give management focus and enhance value for stakeholders,” TVS Group veteran H Lakshmanan has been quoted as saying in the report.

The move is also aimed at avoiding any “problem for Gopal, especially with Venu’s children joining his companies”, a senior partner at a multinational accounting firm has been quoted as saying.

Venu’s children, Lakshmi and Sudarshan, had joined Sundaram Clayton’s board over the last two years.

Lakshmi, who is married to NR Narayanamurthy’s son Rohan Murthy, started her career as a management trainee at Sundaram Auto Components, also part of the family business. In 2010, she was inducted on the board of Sundaram Clayton. She is now vice-president-strategy and global business development.

Sudrashan Venu joined Sundaram Clayton as additional director of in 2011.

Industry watchers have observed that the TVS group is good example of a family running its business with support from professionals, an earlier report in the Business Standard said.