Veteran banker KV Kamath has been appointed as an independent director of Reliance Industries Limited. Industrialist Mukesh Ambani-led RIL on Friday announced Kamath’s appointment on its board for five years. Kamath has also been made non-executive chairman of Reliance Strategic Investments Limited (RSIL), a wholly-owned RIL subsidiary.
“KV Kamath is not related to any Director of the Company. He satisfies the criteria of independence prescribed under the Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015,” RIL said in a stock exchange filing.
Further, the conglomerate announced that RSIL will be renamed as Jio Financial Services Limited (JFSL) and listed pursuant to a scheme of demerger approved by the Board of Directors for demerger of the Financial Services Business of the Company into RSIL.
Kamath will assume office as chairman upon consummation of the scheme of demerger, RIL added.
Indian banker Kamath began his career in 1971 at ICICI. In 1988, he moved to the Asian Development Bank and spent several years in South East Asia before returning to the ICICI as its Managing Director and CEO in 1996.
A post graduate in business administration from the IIM Ahmedabad, Shri Kamath has also served as Chairman of Infosys. In 2015 he was appointed as the first President of the New Development Bank set up by the BRICS countries from where he retired in 2020. He is currently the Chairman of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID).
Kamath was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honours in 2008.
Demerger of RIL financial services business
Last month, India’s most valued firm RIL announced the demerger of its financial services business into a separate entity and will list it on the stock exchanges under the name Jio Financial Services. As per the scheme of demerger, Jio Financial Services will acquire liquid assets to provide adequate regulatory capital for lending to consumers, merchants, etc. and incubate other financial services verticals such as insurance, payments, digital broking, asset management for at least the next three years of business operations.
The company is looking at extending loans, initially, to the available ecosystem of Jio customers. After that, it is planning to widen its reach to the public for personal loans including consumer durables, travel, marriage etc.
