100 years on, TVS gets new lease of life.

For 100 years, Tamil Nadu-based TVS Group has been known for its strengths largely in the auto industry. It developed expertise in finance eventually. Even today, the prominent companies in the $4-billion group — TVS Motor, Sundaram Fasteners and Sundaram Finance — belong to auto and finance.

In all these years, TVS has been happy with its financial conservatism. Still, the group has managed to survive JV divorces, notably Suzuki's famous split with TVS Motor and sustain nearly three dozen offshoots. The group, however, has had its share of misses — particularly in IT.

Today, the accent on new is evident across spheres. Fourth generation family members are being inducted. Recently, Sudarshan Venu, 22, son of TVS Motor CMD Venu Srinivasan, was named on the Sundaram-Clayton board. He joined sister Lakshmi Venu. Sagging businesses like TVS Electronics too are getting a fresh look.

Chairman Gopal Srinivasan has hired a HP and Acer veteran as CEO. He plans to look beyond the company's mainstay, dotmatrix printers. There's one critical part to the 'new' theme — companies that the group has floated afresh in recent times. Here's a look at five new companies.

TVS Capital Funds
TVS Capital Funds was founded in September 2007 by Gopal Srini-100 Years on, TVS Gets New Lease of Life vasan, the younger brother of Venu Srinivasan. The venture also brought together TVS with the Shriram Group. TVS Capital manages the Rs 600-crore TVS Shriram Growth Fund I, which invests in consumer-driven themes such as retail and healthcare.

TVS Housing
TVS Housing is a 100% subsidiary of the Venu Srinivasan-owned TVS Motor Company. It will focus on low-cost and affordable housing. It plans to debut through a pilot lowincome housing project at Nanmangalam, near Sriperumbudur, 50 km from Chennai.

TVS Energy
TVS Energy is again a fully-owned arm of Venu Srinivasan's TVS Motor Company. The company started in 2010 with an investment of Rs 37.5 crore. It has also promoted two special purpose vehicles — TVS Wind Energy and TVS Wind Power.

TVS GMR Aviation Logistics
The tie-up is one-and-a-half years old but hasn't made been public until now. TVS Logistics, which R Dinesh runs, holds 51% stake. A GMR company holds the rest. The son of GMR Group chief GM Rao, Kiran Kumar Grandhi, is one of the directors in the board of the JV. The company wants to build a pan-national presence in aviation logistics, starting from Hyderabad. The JV is currently operating Aero Express, the bus service that connects the Hyderabad airport to all major locations in the city.

TVS Automobile Solutions
The company came into existence only early this year, but the broad offering has been there for a while. TVS Automobile was created by hiving off MyTVS from TVS & Sons. The company's focus is on two segments — 24X7 emergency services and car service.