Mumbai, May 28 :     The promoters of 20th Century Finance Corporation (TCFC) are heading for a split, two weeks after the leading finance company consummated an industry-defining merger with Centurion Bank. S.S Kulkarni, one of the founder promoters known for his funds management prowess, is hanging up the promoter?s mantle in TCFC to pursue his dream of nurturing an independent enterprise from scratch. Corporate corridors are agog with speculation over the reasons for Kulkarni?s imminent departure and his future plans but there are lingering whispers that he will promote and manage an offshore fund in India. But, what prompted him to break away from the extended TCFC family in the first place? The dominant version is that the merger of TCFC with Centurion Bank left him with a strong belief that he could play little or no role in the new scheme of things. That being the case, it was better to shift gears. TCFC was started by four promoters?Davendra Ahuja, the main promoter, S S Kulkarni, V S Srinivasan and R Parthasarathy. Parthasarathy left the finance company to join Infrastructural Leasing and Financial Services (ILFS) as its chairman in the early nineties. This makes Kulkarni the second promoter to have parted ways. Srinivasan is a director in Centurion Bank. Centurion Bank had agreed to acquire TCFC?s operating businesses after board clearances in a deal that gave it an all-India presence and an unrivalled reach in retail finance. The restructuring of TCFC entailed the following: de-merger of its investment division into TCFC Finance; merger of TCFC Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of TCFC, with TCFC Finance; amalgamation of TCFC with Centurion Bank, excluding the investment division Under the merger arrangement, six TCFC shares would be exchanged for six shares of TCFC Finance and ten shares of Centurion Bank. TCFC is the largest shareholder in Centurion Bank with a 35 per cent stake; Keppel Bank of Singapore holds 20 per cent, while ADB and IFC control 11 and 9 per cent respectively. Company sources say Davendra Ahuja and other promoters hold a 37.3 per cent, of which Ahuja alone is believed to control 48 per cent; local institutions and the public have 5.5 per cent and 39.3 per cent respectively. Explaining the move last week, after the merger formalities were completed, TCFC chairman Davendra Ahuja said: ?The combined operation on the corporate and retail front will enrich Centurion Bank?s product-mix, yielding maximum benefits for shareholders and customers.? ?The proposal makes business sense because most banks and NBFCs now share common business activities. Centurion Bank?s access to low-cost funds, coupled with TCFC?s high-growth retail financing business, provides a strong foundation for consolidated operations,? Centurion Bank said in its explanation of the merger proposal. TCFC is ranked among the top five in NBFCs and had 54 branches.