Top-level rejig at Aditya Birla Nuvo; Rakesh Jain named MD

The Aditya Birla group on Tuesday announced top-level reshuffle at Aditya Birla Nuvo. The Birla group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, said it had appointed Rakesh Jain as managing director of Aditya Birla Nuvo, due to the completion of the tenure of the current MD Bharat Singh.

Mr Singh is likely to be given a new responsibility to look after the various trusts of the group. Although this wasn’t immediately confirmed, the Birlas have a precedent of moving their senior executives into advisory roles or as part of in-house thinktank, post retirement.

When contacted, group HR director Santrupt Mishra said: “We are looking for a new role for Mr Singh. Nothing has been finalised as yet.” The group’s corporate norms stipulate 62 years as the retirement age for executive directors. Mr Singh is scheduled to retire in July.

Mr Jain had come from one of the largest conglomerates, General Electric, and is hence considered apt for Aditya Birla Nuvo that has a presence in varied businesses such as textiles, life insurance and telecom.

Adesh Gupta, CFO and whole-time director at Aditya Birla Nuvo, has been appointed as CFO of Grasim Industries from May 1, 2009. Sushil Agarwal, who is currently the president of Birla Global Finance, will be taking over as CFO of Aditya Birla Nuvo.

Pranab Barua, the business director for garments for Aditya Birla Nuvo, has been inducted as whole-time director on the board of the company. “We have always appointed people from within the organisation as part of the senior executive team,” said Mr Mishra who has also been appointed as head of the carbon black business of the company.

Source: Economic Times

Aditya Birla completes Apollo Sindhoori acquisition

Diversified company Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd Monday said it has completed the acquisition of 76 percent stake in the retail broking firm of the Apollo Hospitals Group. The group bought 56 percent in Apollo Sindhoori Capital Investment from the promoters and another 20 percent through an open offer.
The acquired company is a leading player in the financial services sector with over 10 years of experience in the share broking business. It has a network of over 221 own and 687 franchisee branches, and a customer base in excess of 175,000.
'The acquisition not only gives us an opportunity to expand our spectrum of offerings but also presents us a strong customer base, distributor franchise and most importantly an unparalleled talent pool,' said Ajay Srinivasan, chief executive (financial services), Aditya Birla Group.
The group has a presence across various financial services verticals that include life insurance, fund management, among others.
In 2008-09, the financial services business crossed consolidated revenues of $621 million for the first nine months, a growth of over 51 percent from corresponding period last year.