Why Indian logistics giant TVS SCS trusts the Ideals VDR team for its most critical M&A deals

Overview

TVS SCS is an Indian multinational logistics company offering integrated supply chain solutions around the world.

The company had used EthosData’s VDR for its global M&A transactions and its 2023 IPO due to the excellent customer experience. When EthosData was acquired by Ideals in 2024, TVS SCS was happy to continue the partnership as it recognized that Ideals offers the same quality service alongside a superior VDR platform.

“We now use Ideals for all our M&A deals because people matter,” said R Viswanathan, Head of M&A at TVS. “The kind of people that Ideals has is one of the company’s greatest strengths. The customer experience and responsiveness are unbeatable.”

The context

TVS Supply Chain Solutions (SCS), part of the TVS Group, is one of India’s largest and fastest-growing logistics firms. Formed in 2004, the company specializes in end-to-end logistics services for the automotive, defense, and utility sectors. Based in Chennai, it operates in 26 countries with over 18,000+ employees.

The company had been using EthosData’s Virtual Data Room (VDR) since 2017 and Viswanathan was happy with the cost-effective and efficient service.

“I’ve used this product extensively, and in six or seven years, we’ve never had an issue that’s not been resolved within 24 hours,” said Viswanathan. When TVS SCS decided to go public in 2021, he was confident that EthosData was the right VDR platform to manage the process.

Following the successful IPO, Viswanathan has continued working with the EthosData team after they became part of Ideals in 2024 due to the quality of the customer service.

Key challenges

For several years, TVS SCS mainly used its VDR to exchange due diligence information with its global network of 50+ companies. For the IPO, the team needed to make use of additional features available through the platform.

Their initial requirements were:

• Being able to upload a huge number of different types of documents quickly and easily
• Seamless collaboration with the various parties involved in the IPO process
• Regular reports to ensure that targets were met
• Access to excellent 24/7 support 

Solution

TVS SCS has now worked with the EthosData and Ideals team for more than 15 audit projects and three M&A deals, as well as the company’s IPO in 2023 worth 880 Cr. Viswanathan has always been impressed by the quality of the customer service and the platform’s user experience.

During the IPO, the team estimates that approximately 10,00+ files were exchanged between some 500 people in the different legal teams. 

Thanks to the VDR platform and customer service team, they were able to:

• Control access to the documents using 2FA, encryption, and watermarks
• Save more than £10,000 and over 500 hours of team time in just two years
• Resolve any query within 24 hours
• Archive all the IPO data onto a secure USB after the launch.

Viswanathan was especially delighted by the professionalism of customer support: “If there’s a problem, even in the middle of the night, I can call or message, and anyone online will pick up the call and deal with it, even if it’s not their area,” he explains.

The future

Viswanathan is pleased that the standard of customer support has been maintained throughout the years he has been using the platform. “The speed of your turnaround time to sort out issues is phenomenal,” he comments, adding: “We are very happy to have been partnering with you for such a long time and that Ideals has maintained the high level of service.”

Asked for his three top features of the Ideals VDR, he lists:

• The different permission levels so you control who can copy or print and who is read-only
• The group setup so you can assign a particular file to one group that’s not visible to others
• Being able to archive onto a password-protected pen drive.

“I’m amazed by your commitment to security, even down to the archive. It’s phenomenal,” says Viswanathan.

He adds: “I would definitely recommend Ideals as my go-to VDR product.”