Carrier Aircon Ltd managing director Anil Srivastava today resigned ahead of a board of directors meeting here. The board, which met to approve the quarterly results, has accepted his resignation.
It was learnt that the air-conditioning major's net profit for the first quarter of 2001-02 fell around 75 per cent from Rs 10.7 crore in the corresponding period last year to around Rs 2.5 crore on a sales turnover of approximately Rs 155 crore.
The company had registered sales of Rs 151.18 crore in the first quarter of last financial year.
At today's meeting, G Raghavan was appointed president and elected to the board. A top company official said: "Raghavan will lead the company from now on." He will report to a board committee.
Srivastava, who has accepted an offer to serve as advisor to the board, said that the decision to quit was entirely his, though he admitted that the US parent Carrier Corporation had been looking for a change in leadership in the light of the 51 per cent subsidiary being converted into a wholly owned arm.
This is being done through an already announced open offer. In the last few months, Carrier Aircon's marketshare in the air-conditioning market has dwindled as competition grew in the domestic market.
Carrier Aircon has, in fact, lost its leadership in home air-condition segment to LG Electronics, though in terms of overall volume sales (which includes institutional sales and industrial air-conditioning), it continues to be the largest player.
Also during the past few months, there has been a large scale migration of executives, including senior managers, to other companies.
