Mumbai: Renuka Ramnath, managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Venture Funds Management Co. Ltd, on Monday resigned with immediate effect.
Vishakha Mulye, executive director of ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd, will take over the reins of the private equity firm.
Style issues? Renuka Ramnath has led ICICI Venture since 2001. It is not clear how her departure will affect fund-raising efforts at the venture capital firm, which is currently raising a $1.5 billion fund. Kedar Bhat / Mint
Ramnath, who has led ICICI Venture since 2001, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ramnath is widely credited for transforming India’s oldest private equity fund from an early stage venture capital firm to one that does growth capital deals and buyouts.
It is not clear how her departure will affect fund-raising efforts at ICICI Venture, which is currently raising a $1.5 billion (Rs7,500 crore) fund.
Ramnath’s departure has been in the air after ICICI Bank Ltd, India’s second largest bank by assets, announced that Chanda Kochhar would take over from K.V. Kamath as CEO and managing director.
However, a senior ICICI Bank executive said her resignation has nothing to do with Kochhar’s elevation to the post of managing director and CEO of the bank. “There are issues about her style of functioning,” the executive said. He did not want to be identified, considering the sensitivity of the issue.
ICICI Venture, which manages at least $2.5 billion, operates as a subsidiary of ICICI Bank. In its earlier avatar, established in 1988, ICICI Venture was known as Technology Development and Investment Corp. of India Ltd, and counted among its employees Nitin Deshmukh, now CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd’s private equity division, and P.R. Srinivasan, managing director of Citigroup Venture Capital International in India.
It could not immediately be ascertained what Ramnath’s next move is likely to be.
A person familiar with her situation said on condition of anonymity that she might take a break before she floats her own outfit.
A 17 April report in Vccircle.com, a website that tracks the private equity sector, said Ramnath would likely start her own fund.
Earlier, a news channel had reported that she might join KKR India Advisors Pvt. Ltd, the recently set up Indian arm of US buyout fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co.
sanat.v@livemint.com