A legacy of growth: ITC had annualised returns of 20% under Y C Deveshwar

One chair will be empty on Monday when cigarettes-to-hotels major ITC declares its fourth quarter and full-year results for the financial year 2018-19. That would be of Yogesh Chander Deveshwar or YCD. For some, he was simply ‘Yogi’. 

In his two decades of being at the helm, ITC reported remarkable financial growth. For shareholders, the company has given annualised returns of nearly 20 per cent in Deveshwar’s tenure as executive chairman of ITC between 1996 and 2017. 

Revenues have grown at a compound annual growth rate or CAGR of over 14 per cent, while net profit was up 19 per cent every year between FY96 and FY17.