The joining of the four new expatriates is believed to be only the first round in the changes that Alcan has planned. In a second round of reshuffling of portfolios that will be announced within the next couple of months, some members of the executive management committee will be drafted on to the board.

The management committee, which looks after the day-to-day functioning of Indal, comprises the division heads and the company secretary. All have the designation of either president or vice-president. However, the names of the four new expatriates could not be learnt. Senior Indal executives remain tightlipped on the board level changes that will be formally announced on Monday. "Alcan will now have a greater say in the functioning of the company," was all that they were willing to say.

Speculation is rife even among Indal senior executives that some of the non-executive directors (six at present) on the board may step down to make room for management committee members. This,however, could not be confirmed.The non-executive directors on the Indal board include NJ Jhaveri, Deepak Parekh and AL Mudaliar, among others.

The expansion of the Indal board that is being planned some time later to include members of the management committee will be be necessitated as, after the first round of expansion, there will be only two wholetime directors left on the board - the expatriate CEO and NK Choudhary, the chief operating officer.

Partha S Datta was the company's chief financial officer (CFO) till a few months back, but since his resignation, the new CFO Indrajeet Banerjee has not been drafted onto the board yet. Alcan has only recently upped its stake in Indal to 54.6 per cent through an open offer in June.

Its perceived indifference towards Indal had prompted Sterlite Industries to mount a takeover bid for Indal, which Alcan successfully thwarted.