Birla family holds meeting

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.