The conglomerate’s financial ratios may be looking their healthiest under Sanjiv Puri, but he just can’t get investors interested in the company’s stock. Will a break-up move the needle?
It’s hard not to compare ITC chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri to Jeff Immelt. After succeeding the iconic Jack Welch as CEO of American conglomerate General Electric Co., Immelt spent much of his 16 years at the helm firefighting. Not only did he have big shoes to fill, he struggled to simplify the complex conglomerate and cut the dominance of GE Capital—the financial services arm and GE’s cash cow—by launching new businesses that would bring the zing back to GE’s stock. It didn’t work. Shares of GE, once the most valued company in the world under Welch, lost 30% …
Prince leads the newsroom at The Morning Context as managing editor. A fascination with the written word has taken Prince to some of the leading newsrooms across the country, including The Economic Times, Dow Jones Newswires, Forbes India and Moneycontrol. In a career spanning 20 years, Prince has led teams, managed pages, projects and special editions, and has authored The Consolidators, published by Penguin Random House in 2017.
Managing Editor
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Mumbai