ITC board recommends second term for Sanjiv Puri as company CMD

ITC is going to take shareholder vote in its annual general meeting (AGM) next month for reappointment of chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri for a second term of five years effective July 22, 2024. The conglomerate is also going to appoint its food business chief executive Hemant Malik as a whole-time director on the board, the company's AGM notice said.

ITC’s 112th AGM is scheduled on August 11. With Malik’s appointment, ITC board will have four whole-time executive directors. His appointment will be effective August 12, 2023, for three years. Nakul Anand, who oversees hotels business, Sumant Bhargavan, who oversees personal care, education and stationary, overall FMCG distribution including cigarettes, paperboard, paper and packaging businesses, and Supratim Dutta, also the chief financial officer, are on the board.

As per ITC’s annual report for 2022-23, which was published on Tuesday, the remuneration of the existing 3 executive directors of the company and that of Puri went up between 51% and 76% last fiscal. ITC in the report said average remuneration of senior management executives increased by 28% last fiscal due to impact of revision in remuneration and payment of long-term incentives during the year. Puri’s gross remuneration last fiscal was Rs 19.12 crore, Bhargavan’s Rs 8.93 crore, Anand’s Rs 8.44 crore and Dutta’s Rs 5.16 crore. The net remuneration was much lower for all the executives. It was Rs 7.28 crore for Puri, Rs 3.53 crore for Anand and `3.31 crore for Bhargavan.

Puri’s first term as the ITC chairman saw robust growth across all businesses. He embarked on the ‘ITC Next’ strategy to aid growth and improve margins.

The non-cigarette business now accounts for 28% of ITC’s segment Ebitda and 67% of revenue. All key businesses such as FMCG, hotels, agribusiness, and paperboards, paper and packaging saw healthy growth in Ebitda levels during Puri’s chairmanship.

ITC’s packaged food business sales grew by 19% YoY at Rs 15,762 crore in 2022-23, as per disclosures in the annual report. This includes exports as well. In contrast, rivals like Britannia Industries had Rs 15,618 crore standalone revenue from operations and consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 16,300 crore in 2022-23, while Nestle India had clocked revenue of Rs 16,897 crore in 2022.