Tata Motors Finance's chief financial officer quits

Pavan Trivedi left a month ago; Samrat Gupta appointed in his place

Pavan Trivedi, chief financial officer of Tata Motors’ subsidiary, Tata Motors Finance, has quit. This follows four other senior exits from Tata Motors in less than two months. The exit comes weeks before the commercial launch of its compact sedan Zest and hatchback Bolt.

Ankush Arora, senior vice-president (commercial) passenger car business; S Jayaraman, assistant general manager, product planning; V Mamillapalle, head of purchases; and Rajesh Bagga, head of human resources (HR) and legal, were the recent resignations. Prabir Jha, head of HR, had quit last year.

“Pavan Trivedi left Tata Motors Finance a month ago to pursue other opportunities,” stated Tata Motors. It said it had appointed Samrat Gupta in his place. Established in 1957, Tata Motors Finance is engaged in financing the entire range of passenger cars and commercial vehicles made by Tata Motors. TMF is the biggest financer of Tata vehicles.

Attrition in the automotive space has increased in recent months. This is at a time when the sector recorded a fall in sales in 2013, for the first time since 2002. Some exits are from executives of companies that fared well in that challenging year. Anil Dua, a sales veteran from Hero MotoCorp, the country’s largest two-wheeler maker, quit a few weeks earlier. The Delhi-based company recorded a growth of three per cent last year to 6.11 million units. Sanjeev Goyle, senior vice-president, Mahindra & Mahindra, had quit, though the Mumbai-based company’s sales grew 20 per cent last year to 267,000 units

Some exits, however, are from companies facing headwinds in demand. Bajaj Auto’s president of the motorcycle business, K Srinivas, quit last month for better prospects outside. Srinivas joined finance company DHFL’s parent group earlier this month. Last year, Bajaj saw a fall of 15 per cent in motorcycle sales to 2.09 million units, even as the sector grew four per cent.
ATTRITION, ANXIETY

• 4 other senior exits from Tata Motors in less than two months
• In 2013, automobile sector sees fall in sales for first time since 2002