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Journalism of Courage
Chairman of ITC limited Y C Deveshwar today said that his successor would be a man with a wide bandwidth.
It is not that I will choose my successor. That will be done by a nominations committee and the panel would look into leadership traits,person with values,vitality and a man with wide bandwidth, Deveshwar told reporters here after the companys 100th annual general meeting.
He said that there was still five-year time to appoint a successor and the subject was closed for now.
The shareholders today passed a resolution appointing Deveshwar as chairman of the company for five years,with effect from February 2012. Deveshwar said that he was unhappy over the slow execution of projects which the company had announced before involving an investment of Rs 23,000 crore for five years.
At the moment we are running behind schedule. Most of the projects are sanctioned,but I am not happy with the pace of execution because of reasons which are beyond ITCs control, he said. The multiplicity of clearances were creating the delay,he said,adding that the problems would be resolved shortly.
About the groups non-tobacco FMCG businesses,Deveshwar said,On the aggregate,the non-tobacco FMCG business was making losses. I hope that by the time I retire in five years,the division will become profitable.
Referring to investments in hotels chains East India Hotels and Leela,he said that these were mere treasury operations.
We invest in companies where we have some knowledge. Like in EIH and Leela,we know the business since we are also in the hospitality business, he said.
ITC will continue to invest in industries where it operates. It is an issue of deploying temporary liquidity into equity, he said.
Referring to investments in West Bengal,he said that company had not been able to make much progress so far.
We wanted to invest Rs 1000 crore in West Bengal. But we could not make much progress as land was the only problem, Deveshwar said.
