Barely a month after the chief executive officer (CEO) of Adani Group’s Australian subsidiary resigned, the group has seen yet another top-level exit, this time from its power arm Adani Power Limited (APL). Ravi Sharma, chief executive officer, APL, recently resigned, leaving many in the industry perplexed.
Calls to Sharma’s cell phone remained unanswered. Though a company spokesperson refused to comment, three separate sources in the company confirmed Sharma’s resignation. “It is true that he (Sharma) has resigned from the post of CEO. We cannot disclose anything further at this juncture,” said a source at APL.
The reason for Sharma’s exit was not known. The company is yet to inform the stock exchanges of his resignation.
Sharma’s resignation has come as a surprise to many in the industry, as he was a key figure in executing the 4,000-Mw power project at Mundra. The Rs 30,000 crore Adani Group has laid ambitious plans to set up power projects aggregating 20,000 Mw by 2020.
At its 15th annual general meeting in August 2011, APL shareholders had resolved to appoint Sharma as whole-time director for five years with effect from February 8, 2011.
Sharma was appointed as director for nine other group companies — Adani Power Maharashtra, Adani Power Rajasthan, Adani Power Dahej, Adani Pench Power, Mundra Power SEZ, Kutch Power Generation, Phi Televentures, Phi Enterprises and Indian Mobile Data Core.
Before taking charge as CEO of Adani Power in 2010, Sharma was chief executive, Videocon Telecommunications and president (South Asia), Alcatel-Lucent.
Jignesh Derasari, chief executive of Adani Mining Australia, a subsidiary of Adani Group, had resigned on May 16. A company spokesperson had said Derasari had resigned due to personal reasons, as he wanted to be with his family in the US.