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Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has appointed veteran banker KV Kamath as an independent director on its board for five years.
Kamath, who was Chairman and before that MD &CEO of ICICI Bank, is currently the chairman of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development. “KV Kamath is not related to any Director of the Company. He satisfies the criteria of independence prescribed under the Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015,” RIL said in a regulatory filing.
Reliance Strategic Investments Limited (RSIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom-to-retail conglomerate, also named Kamath as an independent director and non-executive chairman. RSIL will be renamed as Jio Financial Services Limited (JFSL) and listed pursuant to a scheme of demerger approved by the Board of Directors.
Kamath will continue as the independent director and non-executive chairman of JFSL “upon consummation of the Scheme and listing of JFSL on stock exchanges”, RIL said.
Speculation is rife that Jio Financial Services has plans to enter various segments in the financial sector. Former SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya is also on the RIL board.
RSIL is an RBI-registered non-deposit taking systemically important (ND-SI) non-banking financial company. As per the demerger scheme, shareholders of RIL will receive 1 equity share of JFSL at face value of Rs 10 each for one fully paid-up equity share of Rs 10 held in RIL (entitlement ratio). Kamath started his career in 1971 with ICICI. In 1988, he moved to the Asian Development Bank and spent several years in South East Asia before returning to the ICICI as its managing director (MD) and CEO in 1996. After the company’s merger with ICICI Bank, he was the MD and CEO of ICICI Bank.
