Kasturi & Sons to get former Britannia MD, ex-TCS CFO on board

Number of non-family members on the board will be increased to 3

Kasturi & Sons Ltd, publisher of The Hindu, has inducted Vinita Bali, former managing director of Britannia and S Mahalingam, former CFO of Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), as independent directors.

Confirming the development, KSL's board in a statement said, "Vinita Bali and Mahalingam are seasoned stalwarts of corporate India. We are privileged and delighted to have them on our board. This is a significant milestone in our institutional journey."

"Both Bali and Mahalingam will add immense value to our strategic direction and growth and enable us to adhere to the highest standards of corporate governance," added the statement.

Post the induction, the number of non-family members in the KSL board will be increased to three from the current one.

At present, KSL's board has 12 members, of which 11 are family members and only non-family member is former McKinsey & Company partner Rajiv C Lochan, who was appointed as managing director & chief executive officer early this year.

The move to increase non-family members on the board came at a time when KSL is facing a huge challenge on the net profit front which stood at around Rs 4 crore in 2013-14. According to sources in the company, KSL's profit dropped from around Rs 85 crore in 2012-13. Sources attributed the drop in profit to losses incurred due to its Tamil daily, launched in September 2013. Company expected to get a further hit due to the implementation of the wage board recommendations as on the direction of the apex court. Insiders say, KSL wage board implementation would cost the company around Rs 40 crore every year.