Murugappa Group: Masters of all trades

From sugar to agro and cycles to financial services, the Murugappa Group has grown from strength to strength since Independence

By Manu Balachandran Forbes India Staff

Published: Aug 29, 2024 10:54:43 AM IST

Updated: Aug 29, 2024 11:12:42 AM IST

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The Murugappa Group operates 29 businesses and has a global footprint spanning 40 countries Image: Balaji Gangadharan for Forbes India

With a global footprint spanning 40 countries, across six continents, the usually-reticent Murugappa Group operates 29 businesses employing over 73,000 people in sectors as varied as agriculture, engineering and financial services. Yet, it retains a rather low-profile for a company that churns over ₹75,000 crore in annual revenue.

Among its prized companies are EID Parry’s, a sugar manufacturer, whose legacy goes all the way back to 1842, when it opened the country’s first sugar plant at Nellikuppam, Tamil Nadu. The Murugappa group took control of the sugarmaker in 1981 and built it into one of India’s largest integrated sugar producers.

Today, Murugappa Group’s companies include agro chemical company Coromandal, cycle maker Tube Investments of India (TII), insurance company Cholamandalam and engineering company Carborundum Universal. The 124-year-old group has nine listed companies, with 10 members across the fourth and fifth generations working closely with the group.

The group traces its roots to 1900 in Myanmar when its founder Dewan Bahadur AM Murugappa Chettiar set up a money lending and banking business in Burma under the name AMM Rm Firm. By the 1920s, the group began diversifying into textiles, rubber plantations, insurance and stock broking with expansion into Malaysia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

But the Japanese invasion of Burma during World War II prompted the group to move back to India, and it began investments into emery paper and steel furniture. In 1949, soon after India, the company struck a partnership with Tube Investments Limited, UK, the world’s largest manufacturer of bicycles at the time, to set up TI Cycles of India Limited.

By 1954, the group set up CUMI, a joint venture between Carborundum Company, USA, Universal Griding Wheel Company, UK, to manufacture abrasives, ceramics, machine tools, polymers and electro minerals in India, around the same time when TI cycles launch the BSA SLR brand of cycles in the country. By 1960, TI also manufactured the one millionth cycle in the country.

Also read: Bajaj Electricals: Sailing the winds of change

By 1978, the group returned to the financial services sector with the launch of Cholamandalam Investment before acquiring the then 200-year-old EID Parry, and expanding further into the agriculture sector through its company Coromandel International Limited. The 1990s also saw the group going into auto ancillary business, supplying to the likes of Hyundai, before putting in place a Murugappa Group structure in its attempt to safeguard the family legacy.

In 2020, the group also took control of CG Power, a Mumbai-headquartered power generation and rail transportation company, formerly known as Crompton Greaves, after it was accused of financial and governance lapses. Since then, CG Power is leading the group’s foray into the lucrative semiconductor industry. The company has CG Power partnered with Japan’s Renesas Electronics and Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics for a ₹7,600 crore semiconductor facility in Sanand, Gujarat.

Today, among its portfolio, CUMI (Carborundum Universal Ltd) has the widest global footprint with over 20,000 products across three business verticals being manufactured in five countries and sold in over 50 countries.

Last year, though, the group caught significant attention when a woman member of the family sought a seat on the board of the group holding company, Ambadi Investments Limited. The group has traditionally been led by male heirs, with the fifth-generation scions from seven branches of the family holding control. The issue was later settled out of court.

(This story appears in the 23 August, 2024 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)