The board of directors of Tuticorin-based private sector lender Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (Bank) has asked AK Jagannathan, who quit as managing director and CEO of the bank, to stay for another three months, till it finds a replacement. Jagannathan has resigned from the top job, citing personal reasons.
When contacted Jagannathan said, ?The board has accepted my resignation and asked me continue for another three months till the bank finds a successor. The management has kickstarted the process of finding a new MD & CEO.”
Jagannathan’s exit, close on the heels of the resignation of Amitabh Chaturvedi, CEO of Kerala-based Dhanalaxmi Bank, had taken the banking industry circles by surprise. While Chaturvedi quit due to tussle with the board, Jagannathan relinquished the post, citing personal reasons. At time when the bank was gearing up for an IPO , the CEO’s exit appears to have given it a big blow.
Jagannathan, who assumed office in October 2010, after moving from State Bank of Travancore, has been preparing ground for making the 90-year old Nadar-community dominated bank public. With an experience of more thatn three-and-a-half decades in the banking industry, he has taken slew of initiatives to scale up the business of the bank. In an interaction last month Jagannathan had said the bank wants to go public and the IPO will happen once all the issues pertaining to the ownership tussle cleared by the courts and apex bank. TMB has been fighting an ownership battle between two factions of the Nadar community, one backed by foreign investors, including serial investor Ramesh Vangal, for quite some time now.