Anant Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Electricals passes away; stock dips 7.5%

Shares of Bajaj Electricals slipped 7.5% to Rs 560 per share on the BSE in intraday trade after Anant Bajaj, managing director (MD), passed away on Friday following a heart attack.

By 10.49 am, however, the stock had recopued some of the loss and was trading at 5.6% lower at Rs 571 levels, as compared to a 0.6% fall in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Bajaj, aged 41, was the only son of company chairman Shekhar Bajaj, took over as MD in June. An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Anant Bajaj was associated with the firm for nearly 20 years, becoming joint MD in 2012.

Despite being the scion of a business family, Bajaj had to work his way up, having begun as a project coordinator at Bajaj Electricals in 1999. He was appointed the general manager in 2005 before being inducted into the board as executive director in 2006. 

His appointment as joint MD was intended to pave the way for his eventual take over as MD, which happened only six years later. On Thursday, his father had told Business Standard, that he was looking forward to Bajaj’s tenure as MD as the company sought to make a leap into the future.

According to analysts, it is a sentimental impact and the market needs to wait and watch as to who is elected as the new MD of the firm.