Mindtree CEO Ravanan likely to quit after L&T picks majority stake: Report

Mindtree CEO Rostow Ravanan is likely to resign in a few weeks after infrastructure company Larsen and Toubro (L&T) acquired a majority stake in the IT company, sources said.

L&T started an unsolicited takeover for Mindtree Ltd. in March and has since then expanded its shareholding to a majority stake with large investors, like Nalanda Capital, selling their shares in the ongoing open offer.

Mindtree founders had resisted the bid and had tried rallying support from Singapore-based Nalanda and others. A source said Mindtree founders had supported Ravanan's continuation to ensure business continuity but given the developments over the past few weeks, he is expected to step down.

E-mails sent to Mindtree weren't answered.

Another source said Mindtree founders Subroto Bagchi, N S Parthasarathy and Krishnakumar Natarajan, who together hold about 13 per cent in the company, may look at selling their shares as well in the open offer that concludes on June 28.

L&T recently secured three board positions at Mindtree that has eight members on the board (of which four were independent directors). Mindtree co-founder Subroto Bagchi did not offer being considered for re-appointment to the board. The IT firm remained silent on how it plans to accommodate the three new L&T representatives.

In March, L&T had said it will buy 20.32 per cent stake in Mindtree from VG Siddhartha and his coffee enterprise for over Rs 3,000 crore, marking India's first-ever hostile takeover bid in the IT space.

Since then, L&T has steadily increased its holding in the Bengaluru-based tech firm to about 30 per cent. L&T is currently in the process of an open offer to buy an additional 31 per cent stake.

The open offer, with an offer price of Rs 980 per share, opened on June 17 and is slated to close on June 28. If the offer of 5.13 crore shares is subscribed fully, L&T will end up with a 66.32 per cent holding in Mindtree.

As of June 26, L&T's open offer had received bids for 4.83 crore shares or 94.16 per cent of the offer.