Rakesh Bharti Mittal resigns from IFCI board

IFCI Ltd today said Rakesh Bharti Mittal has resigned from the board of the company.

"...Rakesh Bharti Mittal has resigned from the Board of the Company," it said in a filing to the BSE.

Mittal is the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises. He is the Chairman of several Bharti Group Ventures and is on the Board of Bharti Airtel, Bharti Ventures and Bharti Enterprises.

The government last week restructured the board of IFCI and nominated two new directors following the acquisition of majority stake in the financial institution.

The government has nominated Anurag Jain, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, in the Department of Financial Services, and VK Chopra, Deputy Secretary in the Finance Ministry on the IFCI board.

Earlier, five directors of the company had already stepped down from the board. They are Sanjeev Kumar Jindal, Shobhit Mahajan, Atul Ashok Galande, S Shabbeer Pasha and Vijendra Singh Jafam.

Post majority stake in the oldest term lending domestic financial institution, government's stake in the company has increased to 55.57% by converting bonds worth Rs 923 crore into shares.

In August, the Cabinet had approved the conversion of debentures worth Rs 923 crore, which the government held in IFCI, into equity.

The government had been giving funds to IFCI since 2001 to help it tide over financial problems. It initially gave Rs 400 crore in the form of 20-year OCDs.

In 2002-03, as part of the financial restructuring package of Rs 5,220 crore, the government gave IFCI Rs 523 crore as loan in the form of OCDs. However, the government stopped releasing funds after IFCI started making profits.

The IFCI scrip closed at Rs 38.95, up 2.10%, on the BSE.