Sundaram Clayton Ltd (SCL), the holding company of TVS Motor Company, today got its shareholders’ approval to appoint Lakshmi Venu, 27, as director–strategy, in the rank of a managing director, of the company.
She is the daughter of Venu Srinivasan, chairman of SCL and chairman and managing director of TVS Motor, and is soon going to be daughter-in-law of Infosys’ co-founder and Chief Mentor, N R Narayana Murthy.
The shareholders’ approval came after the company moved a special resolution at the 48th annual general meeting here today.
Lakshmi Venu, who recently got engaged to Rohan Murthy, the 28-year-old son of Narayana Murthy, underwent her initial training for three years as a management trainee in Sundaram Auto Components Ltd, a subsidiary of SCL, beginning 2003. She was deputed to work in TVS Motor Company, the country’s third largest two-wheeler company by sales, working in the areas of business strategy, corporate affairs, product design and sales and marketing.
Lakshmi Venu holds a doctorate in engineering management from the University of Warwick, UK. Her focus would be on technology, high value-added castings and a balanced portfolio, she told Business Standard on the sidelines of the AGM.
More From This Section
Asked whether the company would look for any new partners to access technology, she said, “We have to look at all the options.”
Sales stagnate
The company has set a target of Rs 1,000 crore turnover in the next two years. Sales were stagnant at Rs 492.7 crore in 2009-10, against Rs 492.4 crore a year earlier.
Commenting on exports, Venu Srinivasan said the demand for commercial vehicles in the US and Europe continued to be depressed. The North American truck market was depressed and the European one had reported steep drops. “This had resulted in the company reporting a 12 per cent drop during the fiscal to Rs 172.72 crore,” he added.
During 2010-11, the company had set a target to increase export to Rs 200 crore. The company has acquired orders from new customers Daimler India, Daimler EU and Nokia Siemens during the year. New orders from existing customers Cummins, Volvo, TVSM, WABCO-TVS, Hyundai, Honda and Ford were also obtained in 2009-10. These new orders are expected to carry a cumulative potential of Rs 375 crore in the next five years, said Srinivasan.
On capital expenditure, he said over the next two years the company was planning to invest Rs 100 crore. This includes setting up a new facility at Oragadam, near Chennai, with an outlay of Rs 40 crore. The new facility will manufacture heavy truck parts and other automotive components, including pipes, brackets and aluminum die-casting.