Home-grown tech and digital transformation firm Mindtree has announced a few significant top leadership changes after the manufacturing major Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) gained a controlling stake in the company.
In an important stock exchange filing on Friday, the company said its co-founders Krishnakumar Natarajan, Executive Chairman; N S Parthasarathy, Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer; and Rostow Ravanan, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the company, have submitted their resignations as members of the Board of Directors of Mindtree Ltd.
Mindtree will announce a new leadership team in due course, it said.
The trio will stay as Board members till July 17 and as employees in line with their employment contracts to ensure smooth transition, said the company in the filing. Further, along with the other founders of the company, they have asked the company to de-classify them as promoters under applicable laws, it further added.
“Mindtree has delivered exceptional performance for all our stakeholders over the last two decades through our differentiated strategy and unique culture. We are grateful to all our customers, Mindtree Minds and external stakeholders for their steadfast support throughout our journey,” said Mr. Natarajan in his exit note adding, “We wish the new leadership team at Mindtree the very best.”
Promoters of Mindtree did their best to resist the hostile bid, but failed eventually as L&T kept on increasing its hold on its acquisition target. The infrastructure conglomerate had bought 20.32% shares in Mindtree from coffee baron V.G Siddhartha and two of his enterprises for over Rs 3,000 crore in March this year. Since then L&T went on a shopping spree, in the open market, for more and more Mindtree shares.
L&T currently holds 60.06% stake or owns 9.87 crore equity shares in Mindtree as on 2 July following its recently-concluded open offer.
Media was abuzz with speculations over Rostow's exist in the last a fortnight. However, Natarajan's exit comes as a surprise as many thought he would continue on board until a new team of leadership was formed.
Mindtree co-founder Subroto Bagchi, who is set to retire this month, had not offered himself for re-appointment to the board.
Last month, L&T secured three board positions at Mindtree — bringing in S N Subrahmanyan (L&T CEO and MD), Jayant Damodar Patil and Ramamurthi Shankar Raman. Their appointments are effective 16 July when Mindtree is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting.