Former chairman of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Susim Mukul (SM) Datta, 89, who handed away in Mumbai on Saturday, spearheaded main M&A initiatives—together with the landmark merger with Tata Oil Mills Firm in 1994 and the acquisition of Kissan and Brooke Bond/Lipton—diversifying HUL’s FMCG portfolio into meals and drinks.
His tenure as HUL chairman lasted for six years until 1996, by which era HUL had acquired the Kissan enterprise (jams and ketchup) from the UB Group, and Dollops ice cream from Cadbury‘s, marking its foray into the meals section. In 1994, the Kwality ice cream enterprise was acquired by Brooke Bond, and the latter merged with Lipton India to kind Brooke Bond Lipton India. In 1996, Datta merged this firm with HUL to convey all companies underneath “one roof.”
Datta led HUL, then referred to as Hindustan Lever, throughout its M&A decade within the Nineteen Nineties, overseeing the merger of HUL’s key competitor, Tata Oil Mills Firm, with itself in 1994, amongst a number of necessary acquisitions throughout the interval.
Datta was the previous president of the Related Chambers of Commerce & Trade (Assocham) and the Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Trade (BCCI), amongst different trade our bodies.
Datta was additionally related to various corporations put up his HUL innings, together with as non-executive chairman of IL&FS Funding Managers, Philips India and Castrol India. His management expanded to extra corporations, together with Peerless Normal Finance & Funding Co., Linde India, Rabo India Finance and Wockhardt Hospitals, amongst different corporations.
Dutta, who started his innings with HUL as a administration trainee in 1956, labored up the ranks to turn out to be its chairman in 1990. An alumnus of Presidency Faculty, Kolkata, the place he acquired a bachelor’s diploma in chemistry, Datta had joined HUL after acquiring his post-graduation diploma in science and know-how from Calcutta College.
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