The Hindu : M. V. Subbiah relinquishes office

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 20, 2004

Business

Business

M. V. Subbiah relinquishes office

By Our Staff Correspondent

M. V. Subbiah

CHENNAI, JAN. 19. Former head of Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) S. M. Datta is the new Chairman of EID Parry Ltd., a company belonging to the Chennai-based Murugappa group. Mr. Datta succeeds M. V. Subbiah, who relinquished office today on reaching the age of retirement.

Mr. Subbiah also relinquished office as the director of the Murugappa Corporate Board (MCB). Following this, he has quit the boards of other group outfits like Parrys Confectionery Ltd. (which is, in any case, sold to Lotte of Korea), Parry Agro and Coromandel Fertilizers Ltd.

With Mr. Subbiah passing the baton to Mr. Datta, EID Parry has undergone a shuffle at the top. The board re-designated P. Rama Babu, whole-time director, as Managing Director. It has also inducted G. Ramprasad, Vice-President (Parryware), as a whole-time director. M. M. Murugappan and Anand Bhatia have been co-opted as additional directors.

EID Parry is a part of the Rs. 4,200-crore Murugappa group. The group has presence in abrasives engineering, bio-products, sanitaryware, plantations, farm inputs, finance, general insurance and nutraceuticals.

The deal with Lotte of Korea for selling the Murugappa group's holdings in Parrys Confectionery, penned here last Friday, was, perhaps, the last major decision taken under his leadership. Quizzed if he felt sad about selling Parrys Confectionery, especially as it was set to celebrate its 50 years of incorporation and at a point when he was about to retire, Mr. Subbiah sort of said that he had no remorse and that the sale was in the interest of all the stakeholders of the company.

Corporate governance, shareholders' responsibility and professionalism are, no doubts, some of the buzzwords that we keep hearing in corporate circles, annual reports and press releases. Perhaps, the Murugappa group was the trendsetter among the family-owned establishments to actually induct a non-family member to head the Murugappa Corporate Board. It was Mr. Subbiah who had been responsible in a way for this when he quit the chairmanship in April 2001 to facilitate the appointment of an outsider as the head.

Much earlier, the group had even solicited the help of an outside agency to revamp its business in line with the happenings around the globe.

Ex-Infosys man Raghavan was originally inducted as the Chairman of the Murugappa Corporate Group. He was, subsequently, replaced by P. S. Pai in October 2002. Mr. Pai was given the mandate to identify the successor within three years. Notwithstanding the presence of an outsider as the Chairman of the MCG, Mr. Subbiah remained the identifiable face of the group. With Mr. Subbiah moving out of the scene following his retirement, the stage appears set for succession at this family-owned group.

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