Birla family holds meeting
By Our Corporate Bureau | 15 Jul 2004
Kolkata: It is learnt from reliable sources that Mr Lodha has not set foot inside Birla Buildings because he would prefer to avoid meeting in person the top brass of the Birla clan at this juncture.
Birla
Buildings in Kolkata houses the registered offices of
a major chunk of the outfits belonging to several Birla
groups.
In
fact, yesterday another round of meetings was held by
the heads of the various Birla wings to discuss strategy
about countering the validity of the will of the late
Priyamvada Birla under which all the assets of the M.P.
Birla group of companies have been given to Lodha.
The meetings were attended by, among others, B.K. Birla,
K.K. Birla, G.P. Birla and S.K. Birla.
Evidently,
the succession process was set in motion a few years ago
when Lodha, an outsider vis-à-vis the Birla family,
was made joint chairperson of the M.P. Birla group companies
- a first for any Birla outfit, as industry observers
point out.
According to one view, a difficult problem in the transfer
of assets, if
and when the transfer has to be made, will be their segregation
in cases where crossholdings are involved in the companies
concerned. This is specially so with regard to four or
five major companies.