TGFL had lined up plans to offer the entire gamut of investment banking activities which would include broking services and a mutual fund. This plan has now been shelved due to a number of constraints being faced by the parent company. The broking and mutual fund activities were to be carried out by Bennett Securities and Times Asset Management Company which would have been headed by Kumar and Ramachandran. Kaicker was to look after the investment banking business.

Meanwhile, sources at TGFL have said that the possibility of the NBFC being merged with TimesBank cannot be ruled out since it would make good business sense."TimesBank does not have a merchant banking licence and can use TGFL's licence since this would add to their fee-based income -- a constituent of gross income that every bank is trying to increase," said sources. Sources at TimesBank said that in the event of something to this effect happening, the bank would not be able to absorb the entire staff at the NBFC. TGFL currently has an employee strength of 83 compared to 174 a year ago. "The initial plan was that the three of us (Kaicker, Kumar and Ramachandran) would head three different companies. Since that is not happening, we have decided to leave. Moreover, a company of this size, cannot have a top-heavy management," said Ramachandran. Kumar and Ramachandran have already received feelers from a few south-based corporates that are keen on taking them in. The duo, along with Kaicker, were responsible for cleaning up the 1996-97 balance sheet of TGFL and making a fresh start. Ramachandran spearheaded the company's restructuring services provided to clients andalso the loan recoveries. The company made a conscious decision to move out of fund-based activities and focus only on generating fee-based income after writing off a massive Rs 49 crore in sticky assets during 1996-97. TGFL also shifted its focus to mid-size corporates on the advice of Durga Prasad. One of TGFL's success stories has been the turnaround of Suman Motels.

Kaicker, Kumar and Ramachandran were brought into TGFL in 1995 to build up the company. While Kaicker came in from ANZ Grindlays Bank, Kumar and Ramachandran were both from Reliance Capital. At the time of their joining TGFL, the NBFC had posted a net profit of Rs 9 crore and had a balance sheet size of Rs 280 crore. As on March 31, 1998, the balance sheet size of the company stood at Rs 40 crore after adjusting a Rs 57 crore write-off.

Ramachandran was responsible for setting up Reliance Mutual Fund and Reliance Share & Stock Brokers while at Reliance Capital. Prior to joining Reliance Capital, he helped set up the Citi India Fund whileserving with Citibank, which had a corpus of $20 million.