The Aditya Birla Group picks UltraTech and Grasim successors from within

Business Standard
19 December 2015

UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries, promoted by Kumar Mangalam Birla, have found their successors from within the Group. ABG’s flagship company, UltraTech Cement, said K. K. Maheshwari would be the company’s next managing director when O. P. Puranmalka retires at the end of the current financial year.

K K Maheshwari would be the next managing director of UltraTech Cement

Maheshwari is, at present, the managing director of the parent company, Grasim Industries. The company acquired UltraTech in 2004 in one of the largest acquisitions in the sector. Subsequently, Grasim demerged its cement business into UltraTech in July 2010.

The merger c;reated the largest cement company in India, with UltraTech Cement boasting a capacity of 63.15 million tonnes a year. Maheshwari, a chartered accountant by profession, has 38 years of experience. He has held various leadership roles, spanning finance and general management, according to a notification by the company to the exchanges.

Maheshwari will remain on the Grasim Board as a non-executive director, and will be succeeded by Dilip Gaur as the next managing director. Gaur is currently deputy managing director at UltraTech Cement. He will resign from this role effective 31 March 2016.

“While we like to expand the responsibilities of executives as they grow, we also like to ensure it should not become a challenge,” says Santrupt Misra, Director (Group Human Resources) at Aditya Birla Group, on change of companies for the top executives for new roles. UltraTech Cement had a standalone turnover of Rs 22,936 crore in FY16, while Grasim reported sales worth Rs 6,332 crore.