According to documents studied by the publication YourStory, the commercial relationship between TVS Motor Company and Hanno One Warehousing, a company associated with the family of Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, turned out to be more extensive than previously assumed.
Hanno One Warehousing was registered in March 2025. Its board of directors includes N Chandrasekaran's wife, Lalita Chandrasekaran, and his son, Pranav Chandrasekaran. According to MCA records, the company's activities are focused on warehousing and storage operations, including the storage of various goods such as automobiles, furniture, chemicals, and textiles.
Hanno's annual report, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) filings, and approved project plans demonstrate that TVS Motor entered into a 29-year lease agreement with Hanno for a plot of land measuring 17.41 acres in Uddanapalli village, Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu state. The documents also contain details of a project worth approximately 106 crore rupees, including planned financing, and indicate that Hanno is considering a similar custom build model in Mysuru.
YourStory has sent queries to Hanno One Warehousing, former TVS Motor Chairman Venugopal Srinivasan, TVS Motor, and Tata Trusts. These queries concern Hanno's selection criteria for the project, the existence of a competitive process, the commercial viability of this arrangement, disclosure of relationships, and consideration of withdrawing from discussions upon Chandrasekaran's reappointment.
These documents add detail to the commercial ties that are under scrutiny amid the corporate governance dispute at Tata Sons. Srinivasan is a director of Tata Sons, Vice Chairman of Tata Trusts, and a member of the Tata Sons Nomination and Remuneration Committee, which assesses the performance of the Tata Sons Chairman. He supported N Chandrasekaran's new five-year term at the board meeting on September 17, while Tata Trusts Chairman, Noel Tata, opposed his reappointment.
Initially, the relationship between TVS and Hanno was reported by the publication Mint, which stated that TVS Motor leased about 17 acres in Krishnagiri from Hanno three months after the company's registration. Tata Sons stated that Hanno's registration was disclosed to companies where Chandrasekaran serves as chairman in April 2025, insisting that this specific deal with TVS did not require separate disclosure because TVS Motor is an independent public company without dealings with Tata group companies.
Tata Trusts reported that Srinivasan made no disclosures to its trustees regarding the TVS-Hanno deal. Under the Krishnagiri project, TVS Motor leased 17.41 acres from Hanno for 29 years. Subsequently, Hanno entered into an agreement with TVS Motor, listed in the annual report as a client, to construct an industrial shed of 330,418 sq ft on the same site. Upon completion, TVS is expected to occupy the facility and pay rent to Hanno. Thus, this arrangement makes TVS simultaneously a lessor of the base land and a client for the facility being developed by Hanno.
Hanno expects rental income from this project to commence in November 2026. Hanno's annual report indicates that Pragati Infra Solutions was appointed as the contractor for design, procurement, and construction for 76.85 crore rupees, excluding GST. MCA mortgage records reviewed by YourStory show the registration of a mortgage of 60 crore rupees in favor of HDFC Bank. The remaining funding is expected to come from a combination of equity, director loans, mandatory convertible bonds issued to shareholders, customer deposits, and bank financing.
Hanno contributed paid-up share capital of 10 lakh rupees for the period covered by its first annual report. The report states that the company borrowed 10.86 crore rupees from one of its directors for partial funding of the Uddanapalli project and financing the acquisition of industrial land in Mysuru. The section describing the loan does not specify which director provided the funds.
Separate approved building plans viewed by YourStory provide a more detailed picture of the development in Uddanapalli. The plans cover cadastral numbers 475, 476, 477, 478, 834, 835/2B, 839/1, 840/1, 841/1, 842/1A, 918/1A, and 918/2B2. They include a factory building of 28,072 sq m, a mezzanine office and dining area of 2,952 sq m, a warehouse building of 4,229 sq m, and auxiliary infrastructure. The total built-up area indicated in the plans is approximately 35,647 sq m, or about 3.84 lakh sq ft. The development is classified as light engineering industry category Orange, excluding manufacturing and forging.
The site plan also includes a substation, wastewater treatment plant, fire reservoir, kindergarten, internal roads, and parking for 44 trucks and 430 two-wheelers. The required equipment capacity is 1,500 kW. The total built-up area of 3.84 lakh sq ft shown in the approved plans exceeds the 330,418 sq ft industrial shed area mentioned in Hanno's annual report. The reason for this discrepancy is unclear from the presented documents; it may reflect office, warehouse, or utility areas not included in the industrial shed metric. YourStory has requested clarification from Hanno.
The annual report also hints that Hanno plans to expand beyond its first project in Krishnagiri. The Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board has allocated industrial land in Immavu, Mysuru, valued at approximately 27 crore rupees to the company. As of the report date, Hanno has invested 7.91 crore rupees for this land and stated that it is negotiating with potential clients for the development of industrial sheds and leasing facilities using the same custom build model.
The document states that the company intends to grow its operations and asset base in the coming years. The allocation of land in Mysuru indicates Hanno's ambition to replicate this model outside the Krishnagiri project. The scale of the proposed development in Mysuru and the identities of potential clients were not disclosed in the report.
The TVS-Hanno relationship attracted attention because Srinivasan was involved in the Tata Sons board decision-making process regarding Chandrasekaran's reappointment. The issue of disclosure remains contentious. Tata Sons' position is that Hanno's registration was disclosed, and the specific deal with TVS did not require disclosure to Tata Sons. Tata Trusts stated that Srinivasan made no disclosure of this deal to its trustees. Tata Trusts also told Mint that it cannot definitively state whether disclosure was made to the Tata Sons board, as it lacks independent access to board meetings.
Tata Trusts added that if the allegations prove true, it will assess its institutional response and take appropriate action. A broader disagreement between Tata Sons and Tata Trusts extends beyond Hanno and includes Chandrasekaran's reappointment, the proposed listing of Tata Sons shares, and wider corporate governance, listing, and shareholder rights disputes.