Bourse without full-time chief for past two months

Ashish Rukhaiyar

The Bombay Stock Exchange, which has been operating without a full-time chief for the past two months, has identified at least three individuals for the top job. According to sources, while all the potential candidates have been interviewed, current interim-CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan has emerged as the clear favourite.

According to persons familiar with the development, apart from Chauhan, the board of directors of Asia’s oldest stock exchange has met Girish Kulkarni and Ashok Rout for filling up the post of managing director and chief executive officer of BSE that has been lying vacant ever since Madhu Kannan resigned in May.

While Kulkarni is currently with Monsoon Capital having worked earlier with Templeton Investments and ICICI Securities, Rout is the former chief operating officer (COO) of BSE and is currently the chief business officer of the Singapore Mercantile Exchange (SME). Incidentally, Kulkarni’s name was doing the rounds in 2008 also when the then CEO Rajnikant Patel had resigned.

?BSE probably wanted to interview 3-4 candidates before making the appointment,? said a person familiar with the developments.

?Ashishkumar is the front runner as he is already working with the exchange and is well aware of the processes. The continuity factor would be his advantage,? said a person wishing not to be named.

Industry players also say that Chauhan would be BSE’s best bet in the current times when the exchange is fighting a difficult battle to hold onto its market share in the cash segment. Data clearly shows that BSE’s share in the total cash market turnover has fallen below 20% in the last few months. Till a few years back, BSE’s share was pegged around 30%. Interestingly, the coming months would also see the entry of MCX-SX in the equity and derivatives segment that will make the competition tougher.

Meanwhile, an email sent to BSE remained unanswered till the time of going to press. While Kulkarni did not respond to a call made to his cellphone, Rout could not be reached for his comments. It is believed that the BSE board has sent the names to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the necessary regulatory approvals.

Sources further add that it has been almost a month since the interviews took place and an announcement can be expected in the coming weeks. The probables were interviewed by a three member panel comprising S Ramadorai (BSE non-executive chairman), Keki Mistry (shareholder director) and Sanjiv Mishra (independent director).