Titan has three top candidates to be its next CEO
the approval process takes two to three months, what we understand. The original information (application) was submitted in November, 2023,” said Hinduja. “I have a letter from the lender that in 72 hours, of pressing the button, the funds, that is, ₹7,500 crore would be made available,” he added.
On 27 February, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) gave its nod
IIHL has a 12.49% stake in the private lender, while IndusInd Ltd has a 3.9% stake
to IIHL’s resolution plan worth ₹9,650 crore for Reliance Capital, formerly under the control of Anil Ambani. The tribunal directed IIHL to close the deal within a 90-day period. Except the insurance regulator, the deal has received the approval of RBI and Competition Commission of India.
had earlier reported that Irdai had expressed reservations regarding IIHL’s takeover of Reliance Capital, particularly about its diverse shareholder structure, under which no single entity holds more than a 10% stake. The insurance regulator had requested in-depth information on
IIHL is also awaiting approval from Irdai for the acquisition of Reliance Capital’s three insurance firms acquisition of a 60% stake in Invesco Mutual Fund, Hinduja expects IIHL’s valuation to touch $50 billion by 2030 from $20 billion a year ago.
Hinduja also added that the promoter IIHL could even look at selling Reliance Capital’s insurance companies to IndusInd Bank, once it receives the approval from Irdai. Sumant Kathpalia, the managing director and chief executive officer of IndusInd Bank, has expressed interest in applying for an insurance licence once it receives capital from the promoter.
“For IndusInd Bank, as and when they get the permission, it will be left to the management to take a call, to start afresh or they will look in the market for any acquisition like in the case of Bharat Financial Inclusion,” said Hinduja. “So, any transactions we have to do between the IndusInd Bank, though the promoter may be common, it will be on an arm’s length basis,” he added.
ON 27 February, the NCLT gave its nod to IIHL’s resolution plan worth ₹9,650 crore for Reliance Capital
IIHL’s shareholders, including their identities, countries of incorporation, citizenship, equity percentages and details of major shareholder groups, it said.
With the resolution process of Reliance Capital underway and the recent demand for charter flights during the period between mid-April till August-end as primarily these months include summer and rainy season, and the high net-worth users of private jets prefer to go abroad for family vacations in countries which have a colder climate. They also do not prefer to visit any plants or facilities on the countryside during this period. The demand usually then picks up September onwards,” Santosh Sharma, founder of Bookmyjet, an online booking portal for business jets, said.
Tandon, founder and managing director at Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS), a proxy advisory firm.
In the past, Titan has announced a successor months before the incumbent’s term ended. On 1 February 2019, Titan informed the exchanges that Venkataraman would take over from his predecessor Bhaskar Bhat from 1 October of that year. Bhat himself was appointed deputy managing director on 1 May 2001, eleven months before he succeeded Xerxes Desai as CEO on 1 April 2002.
Titan’s first CEO Desai had a 16-year tenure, from 3 January 1986 until 31 March 2002, followed by Bhat, whose 19-year stint was the longest, between 1 April 2002 and 30 September 2019. Under Bhat’s watch, Titan’s revenue jumped from ₹700 crore to ₹15,000 crore.
“Now, if Titan has good succession planning, the question or observation to ask is, what Titan is doing should ideally be happening at other companies. Identifying leaders early and then grooming them is the starting point,” said Tandon.
Over the last five years, Venkataraman has steered the company to triple its revenue, even as its market cap jumped from $12 billion to $37.6 billion at the end of Friday.
Titan, which started as Titan Watches, a JV between Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corp. (TIDCO) and the Tatas in 1984, began making watches in 1987. Titan had ₹19.14 crore in sales in the year ended June 1988, the first full year of commercial operations, when it sold 340,000 watches. Profit totalled ₹21 lakh.
Titan, which declared its Q4 and full-year earnings last Friday, reported a 22.8% jump from the year-ago period to end with ₹47,501 crore in revenue in 2023-24. Profit improved 6.8% to ₹3,496 crore.
Promoter holding in Titan stood at 52.90% at the end of March 2024, including 27.88% by TIDCO and 25.02% by Tata Sons and a few Tata group firms. The value of Tata’s shares in Titan stands at ₹78,529 crore ($9.4 billion), as Titan was valued at ₹3,13,868 crore ($37.6 billion) at the end of 3 May.
Both Bhat and Venkataraman launched new business divisions during their tenures, including eyewear and perfumes. But jewellery remains its mainstay, and its share (80.7% of the firm’s revenue) is similar to what it was at the end of September 2019, when the incumbent CEO took over.