MUMBAI, SEPT 29: In yet joint venture failure of the Godrejs, US multinational GE Appliances has begun preliminary discussions with Godrej & Boyce to disinvest from the joint venture company Godrej-GE Appliances. Earlier, Godrej broke off with Proctor & Gamble (P&G) from its soap venture in 1996.``Lack of professionalism in the Indian partners is the main reason for the failure of Godrej's joint ventures,'' said a corporate analyst. After snapping ties with Godrej, GE is likely to make inroads into the Indian markets separately. GE's consumer finance division already has a presence in credit cards through its joint venture with State Bank of India and it also owns a non-banking finance company.In a statement issued here today, GE said: ``This is a consequence of GE Appliances' global brand strategy that focuses on markets where the GE consumer brand franchise for appliances is strong.'' Corporate analysts say the Indian partners are completely overwhelmed by the style of functioning of the JV partners.``Indian corporate leaders are still suffering from the `seth' mentality and very few professionals rise up in the hierarchy in a family-dominated business. The friction, therefore is quite natural,'' says a top official of a multinational.GE India CEO Scott R Bayman, however, said that this does not diminish GE's commitment to India where GE's key businesses have invested considerably in establishing a strong presence. We continue to move forward on a wide variety of initiatives in India.''Industry sources point out that a tiff between the two promoters has been going on for some time as GE had been insisting on raising stake which has not found favour with Godrej. Moreover, against a turnover projection of Rs 3,500 crore for the 1996-97 fiscal, the joint venture managed to notch up only Rs 813 crore for the year ended March 1999.
