My successor should have wide bandwidth: Y C Deveshwar

Chairman of ITC Limited Y C Deveshwar on Friday said that his successor would be a man with a wide bandwidth.

"It is not that I will choose my successor. That will be done by a nominations committee and the panel would look into leadership traits, person with values, vitality and a man with wide bandwidth," Deveshwar told reporters in Kolkata after the company's 100th AGM .

He said there was still five-years time to appoint a successor and the subject was closed for now.

My objective is to be future ready, says Deveshwar

The shareholders on Friday passed a resolution appointing Deveshwar as chairman of the company for five years, with effect from February 2012.

Deveshwar said he was unhappy over the slow execution of projects which the company had announced before involving an investment of Rs 23,000 crore for five years.

"At the moment we are running behind schedule. Most of the projects are sanctioned, but I am not happy with the pace of execution because of reasons which are beyond ITC's control," he said.

SPECIAL: YC Deveshwar on ITC's future

The multiplicity of clearances were creating the delay, he said, adding that the problems would be resolved shortly.

ARCHIVE: 'Our aim is to be no.1 FMCG firm'

About the group's non-tobacco FMCG businesses, Deveshwar said, "On the aggregate, the non-tobacco FMCG business was making losses. I hope that by the time I retire in five years, the division will become profitable."

Referring to investments in hotels chains East India Hotels and Leela, he said that these were mere treasury operations.

"We invest in companies where we have some knowledge. Like in EIH and Leela, we know the business since we are also in the hospitality business," he said.

"ITC will continue to invest in industries where it operates. It is an issue of deploying temporary liquidity into equity," he said.

Deveshwar said the company would make a foray into the dairy business with products like skimmed milk powder, ghee, cheese and butter.

Referring to investments in West Bengal, he said the company had not been able to make much progress so far.

"We wanted to invest Rs 1,000 crore in West Bengal. But we could not make much progress as land was the only problem," Deveshwar said.