(from right) Murugappa Group Executive Chairman A. Vellayan, Chola MS Managing Director S. S. Gopalarathnam, Murugappa Group Director (Finance) N. Srinivasan and Chola Chairman M. B. N. Rao at the unveiling of new brand identity in Chennai

The Murugappa group has gone in for a new brand identity for its financial services business. This comes months after the group itself went in for brand refreshment.

The financial services business of the group, comprising Cholamandalam Investment & Finance Company, Cholamandalam Securities, Cholamandalam Distribution Services, Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company and Cholamandalam MS Ris Services, will sport a new logo. The new logo uses a colour palette of red, blue, black and white. They represent scale, stability, clarity, legibility, transparency and trust.

According to Murugappa Group Executive Chairman A. Vellayan, “Cholamandalam has been one of our strongest brands and is fondly called Chola by all. Hence, we found it apt to make this our brand name to further deepen our relationship with customers and stakeholders.

The adoption of Chola as the new brand “signals a shift from traditional to contemporary look even while retaining the core values,'' he added. The new brand identity would help the non-banking finance arm of the group re-focus on vehicle finance, home equity and corporate mortgage, Mr. Vellayan said.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, the Chairman said the group was only for the lost time in going for the brand refurbishment exercise for its financial services business. He said the brand refresh was aimed at the group getting into a pre-eminent position in the financial services business.

The group, he said, had no intention to getting into the bank sphere. The policy was still unclear, he added.

Lead Director of financial services business of the group N. Srinivasan said post-disengagement with DBS of Singapore, Chola was keen to become a deposit-taking non-banking finance company. It had already moved the Reserve Bank of India in this regard, he added. Chola was aiming to double the assets under management from the current Rs.8,000 crore in 3-4 years, he added.

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