Harsha Viji, representing the fourth generation of the TVS family, has taken over as the new Managing Director of Sundaram Mutual, the Group's mutual fund business. The 36-year old Viji, is the son of S Viji, chairman, Sundaram Finance Ltd.
Growing up in the TVS family meant that business discussions permeated every aspect of life. Dinner invariably included conversations on steel prices or RBI policies. Vacations were spent in workshops or in internships with companies. This invariably led to his interest in the family business says Viji, who returned to India seven years ago after working first at McKinsey for four years and then at Price Waterhouse.
During this tenure, he travelled across US, UK, Germany, Italy and Japan. "I got exposure to wide range of industries and functionalities during this time," says Viji. At Sundaram, he has set a target to grow company's assets under management (AUM) by three times and is looking at raising around $1 billion from international funds mainly from Middle East and Australia and plans to expand business to Singapore amongst other locations.
Harsha said that while regu-latory changes the past two years have dampened sentiment in the industry, the mutual fund penetration in India remains low and therefore there is enormous potential to grow.
