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| October 10, 1997 |
Taj hotels AGM ratifies Ratan Tata, Krishna Kumar's appointmentsSyed Firdaus Ashraf in Bombay The Indian Hotels Company annual general meeting of shareholders on Friday ratified the appointments of Ratan Tata, R K Krishna Kumar, and S Krishnan as chairman, managing director, and deputy managing director respectively. On September 2, the IHC board of directors had appointed the three, replacing Ajit Kerkar as Chairman and Managing Director. At the AGM, Ratan Tata paid glowing tributes to his predecessor. "Kerkar has made a significant contribution to the company, and nobody is denying that," he said. He, however, added, "We must not look back and instead concentrate on the road ahead." Ratan Tata strongly denied the allegations of Tata Tea's involvement in subversive activities, as claimed by the Assam police. "Neither Tata Tea nor its managing director, Krishna Kumar, have participated in any anti-national act," he declared. The IHC chairman insisted that the Taj Group of Hotels would prosper under Krishna Kumar's leadership. Refuting the claims of a section of people that Krishna Kumar's background as managing director of Tata Tea will not help him run a five-star hotel chain, the Tata pointed out, "Louis Gerstner, former IBM chief, had a background in a biscuit company but he was still able to make IBM a success." To buttress his statement further, he added, "Xerxes Desai, Titan's chairman and managing director, had no background in a watch company. But still today, Titan is one of the market leaders." Commenting on the performance of the Taj chain of hotels, Ratan Tata admitted that in Delhi, the Taj Mahal Hotel's ranking has been overtaken by Maurya Sheraton and Oberoi. "We seriously need to consider this loss of position," he stated. Tata ruled out selling the loss-making Taj hotels. He said IHC will review the loss-making units and restructure them. Dwelling on IHC's expansion plans, Tata said that a 700-room hotel in Bandra-Kurla complex, in central Bombay, was under consideration. He added that new hotels would open in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, in 1998 and 1999 respectively. Indian Hotels Company's profits have increased marginally for 1996-97 over the previous year. It earned Rs 1.46 billion as profit after tax compared to Rs 1.4 billion for 1995-96. At the AGM, a dividend of of 85 per cent was announced, up from last year's 75 per cent. Interestingly, the share price of IHC on Friday was quoted at Rs 600 compared to Rs 592 on Thursday. The board members were embarrassed when a shareholder pointed out that the company's annual report did not contain the company's address, and telephone and fax numbers. Shareholders were unhappy at being 20 per cent discount coupons. They were demanding 50 per cent discount coupons. Later, speaking to this reporter on the change of guard, a shareholder recalled an earlier AGM with Ajit Kerkar. "One person got up and said, 'Taj is Kerkar and Kerkar is Taj'. However, Kerkar immediately rejected the statement, saying that whatever the Taj is today is due to a team effort," the shareholder remembered, and added, "And I hope that this team effort will continue under Krishna Kumar and Tata's leadership,''
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