Managers go for lessons in M&A

Leading Indian corporate houses including Aditya Birla and Godrej are planning to send their senior managers to Chennai-based Great Lakes Institute of Management, to get them trained in mergers and acquisitions.

Bala V Balachandran, founder and honorary dean, GLIM, said that the post-merger integration programme was introduced in association with the strategic planning group of Aditya Birla.

To start with, 42 senior managers from 15 companies of the Aditya Birla group have taken up a 13-day course in finance, human resources and marketing. "Soon we are getting managers from Godrej Group for the course," said Balachandran.

The Institute was also approached by other companies, and was in discussions with them, he said.

"Our role is to provide necessary educational foundation and help them to expand into new markets, acquire new business and ultimately increase profits," said Balachandran.

In recent days Indian corporate houses are increasingly acquiring companies in Latin America and Europe. But on the other hand these companies are not efficiently managed, he added.

During the first half of 2010, Indian companies were involved in a total of 300 merger and acquisition (M&A) deals, up by 69 per cent compared to the same period last year and up 27 per cent compared to the second half of 2009.

The programme will create and strengthen the internal mergers and acquisition task teams. It will also give insights into post merger acquisitions to create synergies among organisations and help avoid failure, financial and cultural clashes, he added.

The institute is also planning to launch a similar course for entrepreneurs, including mom and pop shop owners.

"We will work with then on royalty basis, we will train them how to run their business, will get access to fund for their business after 3-4 years, if the companies makes profit, we will take our fee as a royalty from them," he said.

The institute spread over in 20 acre of land near Mahabalipuram, on the East Coast, 50 kms from Chennai. Great Lakes valuation is about Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) currently and run mainly by donations from Indian corporate houses, said Balachandran.