Sandeep Bakhshi named ICICI Bank COO; Kochhar on leave
MUMBAI: The board of ICICI Bank Ltd on Monday named group veteran Sandeep Bakhshi as wholetime director and chief operating officer (COO), creating a new top position at India’s second largest private bank, to steer all its businesses.
Chanda Kochhar, ICICI Bank’s managing director and CEO who is facing conflict-ofinterest allegations, will remain on leave until a committee investigating allegations of impropriety completes its work, the bank said in a statement issued after a board meeting on Monday.
Bakhshi, currently managing director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd, has been appointed for a period of five years. He will take charge as COO on Tuesday and report to the CEO; however, while Kochhar is on leave, he will report to the bank’s board, the ICICI Bank statement said.
The statement further said that “Bakhshi will be responsible for handling all the businesses and corporate centre functions at the bank”.
“All executive directors on the board of ICICI Bank and the executive management will report to him. Mr Bakhshi will report to Ms Chanda Kochhar, who will continue in her role as MD & CEO of ICICI Bank,” the statement said.
Bakhshi will continue as nonexecutive director of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
The statement also said NS Kannan has been appointed as CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance for a period of five years.
The decision to name Bakhshi as COO comes after the board decided last month to set up a panel under Justice BN Srikrishna to investigate allegations of conflict of interest and quid pro quo against Kochhar in a consortium loan extended to the Videocon group.
Separately, the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is investigating whether ICICI Bank and Kochchar failed to make adequate disclosures to the bank’s board about her husband Deepak Kochhar’s partnership in a firm, Nu Power, when the bank sanctioned loans to companies controlled by Venugopal Dhoot, the owner of Videocon group. Dhoot was also a founding partner of NuPower.
Government authorities are also separately conducting a preliminary enquiry into the alleged nexus between Videocon and Kochhar’s husband.
When the charges first surfaced, the ICICI Bank board in April dismissed all allegations, only to make a U-turn and set up an independent probe a month later.
The latest move will test the resolve of the company’s shareholders and does not put the board in a good light, said one proxy advisory firm.
“According to the press release, Chanda Kochhar has decided to go on leave rather than board asking her to go on leave. This shows that the board is a weak board and could not take an independent decision. There was a chance before the board to redeem itself but sadly, it appears that the board is singing to the tune of CEO Kochhar,” said Shriram Subramanian, founder and managing director of proxy firm InGovern Research.
“Of course, the board has given a graceful exit to Kochhar since the probe is not a timebound investigation and the CEO’s term ends in March next year,” said Subramanian.
Since the allegations surfaced in late March, ICICI Bank’s shares have underperformed the Sensex. On Monday, shares of ICICI Bank gained 3.61%, after The Economic Times reported that ICICI was planning to name Bakhshi as COO.