CALCUTTA, Nov 21: At a meeting here on Friday, the ITC board decided to induct two wholetime directors, Anup Singh and SSH Rehman, to strengthen the executive management team. It was also decided that in future, as part of the new corporate governance structure the number of executive directors will be maintained at 5 against the earlier practice of having 10 wholetime directors, chairman Y C Deveshwar told newsmen here today.

Anup Singh has been working as the chief executive of the India Tobacco Division since January 1997 and will now on be in overall charge of the entire tobacco portfolio of the company.

S S H Rehman is the managing director of ITC Hotels and brings to the board his expertise in hotel management and will play a crucial role in developing the necessary skills for effective utilisation of the group's assets in the hotels and real estate businesses.

Deveshwar stated that the board has decided to make Landbase, a subsidiary of International Travel House as the vehicle for optimising benefits to be drawn from the real estate and hotels divisions of the ITC group.

He added: "Our objective is to nurture real estate skills through Landbase which will in turn provide the expertise to owners of real estate within the group. We have made a start in this direction and we will now give it a structure."

At today's meeting, Deveshwar revealed, it was also decided to take over the Bombay hotel project in ITC's fold with the consent of the ITC Hotels management. This project is tentatively estimated to cost around Rs 350 crore.

On ITC Classic's restructuring plan and ITC's stand, Deveshwar made a candid observation: "I have no hesitation in telling you that it (Classic) was a rank bad management. The company's restructuring plan is being worked out and the earlier plan to inject funds through the preferential share route is subject to review and depends on what shape the plan finally takes. The mode of financing Classic is yet to evolve."

On the paper business and ITC Bhadrachalam in particular, Deveshwar said the company's plant in AP would easily rank among the top ten in the world in the premium coated paperboard segment as an individual mill. "This product is growing at the rate of 25 per cent per annum and we need time to show results assuming a gestation period of two to three years. I would say that the company is at the crossroads with a huge investment on expansion of capacity."

"If we are unable to run it ourselves, we will seek a partner to nurture the company till it becomes a dominant player in the industry. If even that does not work, we will exit the business," he clarified.

Summing up the company performance in the first half he said it was the result of a "richer product mix and our market standing and not just volumes." He, however, refused to divulge details of the division-wise breakup of revenues and said: "I am following in the footsteps of the GE chief executive officer Jack Welch who refuses to give details of his company's divisional performance."

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.