India's largest bourse, the National Stock Exchange (NSE), witnessed a big churn in its leadership position on Friday as chief executive officer Chitra Ramkrishna put in her papers, just days before the exchange readies for public listing.
The exchange said in a note that the board of NSE met on Friday and accepted her resignation. According to the notification, Ramakrishna tendered her resignation owing to personal reasons and expressed her desire to step down with immediate effect.
Meantime, the board has set up a selection committee to search for replacement for Ramkrishna and has appointed group president J Ravichandran as interim CEO.
The abrupt departure of Ramakrishna, whose tenure is scheduled to end in March 2018, has stunned many investors and market watchers as the exchange is all set for public listing early next year.
Reports suggested that she had differences with the board over timing of listing and a Sebi-monitored investigation into alleged irregularities on NSE platform.
A chartered accountant by training, Ramkrishna was one of the five people hand-picked by SS Nadkarni, ex-chairman of IDBI, to set up NSE in 1992. She was elevated to the post of managing director and chief executive officer in April 2013.
Under her leadership, NSE became India's largest bourse, with average daily volumes of about Rs 3.6 trillion in equity derivatives and Rs 214 billion in equities, way ahead of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
The exchange reported a net profit of Rs 1,026 crore and revenues of Rs 2,222 crore during last financial year. Currently, NSE holds 80 percent market share in overall trading space and has clear dominance in derivatives trading segment.
The board of the company had given a go-ahead for listing in June this year with a deadline for filing draft prospectus for domestic listing by January 2017 and for listing abroad by April 2017.
