Key Points
As chairperson of TVS Holdings Ltd (formerly Sundaram-Clayton) and chairman emeritus of TVS Motor Company Ltd, he announced that his nuclear family members, comprising himself, his wife Mallika Srinivasan, daughter Lakshmi Venu and son Sudarshan Venu, had executed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), effective 21 March 2024, to avoid competition among themselves with specific reference to the use of the TVS brand name, complete with a non-compete pact and more..
This is an interesting and unique family business development for three reasons..
Second, while Venu Srinivasan inherited parts of the larger TVS Group in an earlier family settlement, Mallika, who originally hails from another large South Indian business family (of the Amalgamations Group) inherited Tractors and Farm Equipment (TAFE) from her father, A..
On the face of it, the division of responsibilities drawn out within this nuclear family appears to be on gender lines, with Venu Srinivasan and Sudarshan Venu aligned in the management of the TVS Group and Mallika and Lakshmi Venu largely with TAFE..
The latest agreement, which partly pertains also to the ownership and use of the TVS brand, assumes significance because as we have seen in the past, there have been disputes within other family businesses, like the Hero Group, where competing claims to use of the Hero brand between two factions of the same extended family, one under Naveen Munjal of Hero Electric and the other under Pawan Munjal of Hero Motocorp, had to be resolved through courts..
