Privatisation-bound Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) on Tuesday saw two key board positions, including that of chairman and managing director, falling vacant after the government decided to let the new owner of the company fill in the posts. BPCL’s chairman and managing director D Rajkumar and director-refineries R Ramachandran superannuated after attaining the age of 60 years on August 31.
A top source said the remaining existing directors of BPCL would hold additional charge till such time new management takes over the company. Director-human resources K Padmakar, who is the senior director on the company board, will be given the additional charge of chairman and managing director, he said.
The charge of director-refineries would go to either director-marketing Arun Kumar Singh or director-finance Vijayagopal. Formal orders giving additional charge are being issued, the source said.
Government headhunter, the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), had advertised for filling up the two posts in August 2019. It was scheduled to interview the shortlisted candidates in March/April, but called it off after the government felt the new management of BPCL should get the right to fill the vacancies.
The government is selling its entire 52.98 per cent stake to a strategic buyer. Expression of Interests (EoI) are due by September 30. Interestingly, Rajkumar had on July 20 resigned from the board of Petronet LNG Ltd, according to a regulatory filing.
BPCL is a co-promoter of India’s largest gas importer and gets to appoint a director on the company board. Petronet is headed by Oil Secretary, and heads of promoter companies — IOC, ONGC, GAIL, and BPCL — are nominee directors on its board. Rajkumar’s nomination on the board of Petronet, like other promoter directors, should normally have been co-terminus with his holding of the charge of chairman and managing director of BPCL.
But he chose to resign six weeks ahead of his retirement and was replaced by Arun Kumar Singh, director-marketing of BPCL, another regulatory filing said. If Rajkumar had not resigned, the acting chairman and managing director, Padmakar, would have become the nominee director on the board of Petronet.
Rajkumar had been the chairman and managing director of India’s second-biggest state oil refiner since October 2016. BPCL on Tuesday tweeted about Ramachandran retiring from the company, but hadn’t done so about Rajkumar.
A source said perhaps some in BPCL are expecting that Rajkumar may be given an extension till privatisation of the company is completed in March 2021.
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