Temasek nominee on Tata Tele board

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.

While Tata officials and Kejriwal were not available for comments, Temasek confirmed the appointment in an e-mail reply to Business Standard.

Kejriwal is the Managing Director of Temasek Holding Advisors India, a subsidiary of the Singapore company.

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.

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.

Sivasankaran has also not recommended a representative in his place, it is learnt.

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.

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.