Jayanti Chauhan, daughter of Bisleri International chairman Ramesh Chauhan, will head the bottled water company now that Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL) has withdrawn from the acquisition process, The Economic Times reported on March 20.
"Jayanti will run the company with our professional team and we do not want to sell the business," Bisleri chairman Ramesh Chauhan said, as quoted by ET.
Jayanti Chauhan, 42, is currently the vice chairperson at the company that her father promoted and built.
According to people with knowledge of the matter, she will work with the professional management team led by Angelo George. The 82-year-old Chauhan sold the brand to the Tata Group earlier this year for an estimated Rs 7,000 crore. The deal with India's largest bottled water brand was cancelled by Tata Consumer due to "indecisiveness," ET reported on March 18.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
There were no disagreements about valuation, they said. According to analysts, the promoters may change their minds in the future. "Let us wait and watch," one of them told ET. "We are sure that interested buyers will continue to wait for an opportunity to buy the brand," he added.
Tata Consumer had reportedly begun negotiations with the Chauhan family two years ago but called off negotiations last week. Jayanti has been involved with the business periodically over the years. The Vedika brand, part of Bisleri's portfolio, has been her focus in recent years.
Reportedly, the Tata Group had gone to great lengths to assure Chauhan that Bisleri's legacy would continue under the Tata Group. "But we had to finally call off this fence-sitting," one of the sources told ET.
Due to early summer and an increase in out-of-home demand, packaged beverages have grown in high double digits.
Sunil D'Souza, Tata Consumer's managing director, stated on recent earnings calls that acquisitions remain a core part of the company's growth strategy. "The company will now focus on building its existing bottled water portfolio of Himalayan, Tata Copper Plus Water and Tata Gluco," one of the executives cited above told ET. The company "has not entered into any definitive agreement or binding commitment with Bisleri International," the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) arm of the Tata Group said on March 17 in an exchange filing.
"The company wishes to update that it has now ceased negotiations with Bisleri with regard to a potential transaction and to confirm that the company has not entered into any definitive agreement or binding commitment on this matter," it added.
It may be recalled, when Coca-Cola re-entered into the Indian market in 1993, it had acquired Thums Up, Gold Spot, Citra, Maaza, and Limca owned by Chauhan. Thums Up still dominates the Indian soft drink market with a share of about 20 percent, far ahead of global rivals Coke and Pepsi, the report said.
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