Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of Singapore government, has named its Manish Kejriwal as representative on the board of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), while Chennai-based entrepreneur C Sivasanakaran opted out. This increases the number of directors on the telecom major's board to seven. | |
| The decision to appoint a Temasek nominee was taken at the Tata group company's board meeting held today. |
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| While Tata officials and Kejriwal were not available for comments, Temasek confirmed the appointment in an e-mail reply to Business Standard. |
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| Kejriwal is the Managing Director of Temasek Holding Advisors India, a subsidiary of the Singapore company. |
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| However, the former Aircel owner C Sivasankaran, who had picked up a 5.5 per cent stake in TTSL, chose not to have a berth on the board. Sources close to the development said that Sivasankaran was looking at the holding as a strategic stake and not as a managerial position. |
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| Temasek had acquired 9.9 per cent stake in TTSL, while Sivasankaran had acquired a 5.5 per cent stake in the company and was rumoured to have been offered a berth. |
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| Sivasankaran has also not recommended a representative in his place, it is learnt. |
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| Tata Sons continues to hold a major stake in TTSL, even after the stake sales. Two Tata companies - VSNL and Tata Industries - also hold stakes in the company. The exact percentage of stake held by each partner nor the number of nominees from each company were not known. |
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| TTSL operates in 2,200 towns across 20 circles like Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Gujarat, Karnataka and New Delhi among others, and has a customer base of over 8.4 million. |
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