Tuesday, July 31, 2018

IDFC Bank: Board capture by MD?

Rajiv B.Lall, CEO & MD of IDFC Bank is a very articulate person. He makes exhaustive presentations about the bank in AGM. He is the founder MD of the bank.

The bank, an offshoot of IDFC, is only 4 years old. Its performance is lacklustre and this is amply reflected in its financials. Sensing that some drastic steps are needed to change the bank's fortunes, he angled for the bank's merger with Shriram group. The talks floundered and now merger with Capital First seems to be on.

Merger is a policy decision and therefore must have been debated upon extensively by the Board. In the bank's AGM on July 31st, all questions raised by shareholders were answered only by the MD irrespective of whether the questions related to policy or operations. This was surprising because there are some eminent members in the Board.

This only means that Lall has effectively captured the Board and his writ runs all over. After the merger, he becomes non-executive Chairman. V.Vaidyanathan, the promoter of Capital First will be the MD & CEO. If Vaidyanathan is as eloquent and assertive as Lall, interesting developments may be seen. Whether it is good for the bank remains to be seen.

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