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Coal India CMD quits, may take 6 months to find successor

The 56-year-old Rao will take up a new role as principal secretary to K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the chief minister of India's 29th state — Telangana — from June 2. However, there is no word yet who will be Rao's successor in Coal India after his resignation.

Eyeing a key role in newly-formed Telengana, S Narsing Rao has stepped down as as Coal India chairman and managing director. His resignation is yet to be accepted by Piyush Goyal, the Minister of State for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, who took charge only 24 hours back. The 56-year-old Rao will take up a new role as principal secretary to K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the chief minister of India's 29th state — Telangana — from June 2. Meanwhile, there is no word yet on who will be Rao's successor in Coal India after his resignation. Finding a replacement may take as long as six months. As per the norms, the the public enterprises selection board will need to notify and call for candidates, followed by shortlisting and interviews. The appointments committee of the Cabinet will direct the coal ministry on this. At this juncture, it is unclear if Mr Rao will be relieved soon since a behemoth like Coal India cannot be left leader-less. Mr Rao, a 1986 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who hails from the Telangana region, had quit service to join as CMD of world's largest coal producer in April 2012 for five-year tenure. He is due to retire in 2018. Before joining Coal India, Mr Rao was CMD of Singareni Collieries Company Ltd, owned by the Andhra Pradesh government and the Government of India on a 51:49 equity basis. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi is set to form the first government in Telengana, which will formally come into existence as the country's 29th state on June 2, following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. With inputs from PTI Coal India stock price On May 29, 2014, at 11:57 hrs Coal India was quoting at Rs 377.75, down Rs 2.6, or 0.68 percent. The 52-week high of the share was Rs 417.00 and the 52-week low was Rs 238.35. The company's trailing 12-month (TTM) EPS was at Rs 26.41 per share as per the quarter ended December 2013. The stock's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 14.3. The latest book value of the company is Rs 32.48 per share. At current value, the price-to-book value of the company is 11.63.

Source: Moneycontrol