L&T Finance Holdings asks over 600 employees to resign

L&T Finance Holdings Ltd, the financial services arm of Larsen & Toubro Ltd, has asked over 600 employees to resign as part of a move to rationalise operations, sources close to the development told Cogencis. Most of these employees have started putting in their papers since last week, sources said.

When contacted, L&T Finance Holdings confirmed some exits, but did not comment on the number.

"We have our annual performance management system and all decisions are taken purely based on performance and competence," the spokesperson said. In many cases, the employees who have been asked to quit are at mid to senior levels, and have been at the company for over a decade.

"The move has come as a shocker to the staff. There have been recruitments constantly happening and there has been no inkling of such a move so far," a senior official who is still with the company said.

On Monday, L&T Finance Holdings Chairman Y.M. Deosthalee, in an interview to The Economic Times, said the company was planning to rationalise business and product portfolio and exit some business. Employees have been told that L&T Finance Holdings is reviewing its presence across these verticals. In the lending business, many of the retail lending and small business- linked loan products will be cut as personnel manning whole sections of the business have been asked to quit, sources said. "Many other people within the company have also informally been told to start looking at options. This is across verticals, with the biggest casualties in the lending business, insurance, wealth management asset management company," another source involved with the process within the company said.

The news comes at a time when L&T Finance Holdings continues to harbour ambitions to become a universal bank for which the Reserve Bank of India is already working on fresh guidelines.

A report on television news channel CNBC-TV18 have also linked L&T Finance Holdings with taking a sizeable stake in IDBI Bank as part of a 'reverse merger'.

"This has come as a surprise to most of us. Some of us have been part of the organisation for years and have been promoted as recently as last year and now have been told to put in our papers" - A MID-LEVEL OFFICIAL IN THE NON-BANK ENTITY, WHO HAS BEEN ASKED TO QUIT, SAID