Suzlon may announce new CMD this week ahead of rights issue: Sources 

Suzlon Energy founder Tulsi Tanti.

“Tulsi Tanti was the face of not just Suzlon but also the entire wind energy sector in India. What happens now?”

“Tanti bhai’s persistence brought Suzlon very close to the end of the tunnel where there was light. They need a push now but who will give that?”

The sudden demise of Tulsi Tanti, founder and chairman, Suzlon Energy Ltd on October 1 saw tributes pouring in from the renewable energy professionals, entrepreneurs and even the prime minister. Soon questions followed on the fate of Suzlon Energy, which has had a checkered past dealing with huge debt time and again. Tanti led from the front and got Suzlon out of crisis every time. But what now?

Sources said that the management and Tanti family is keen to make an announcement regarding the new chairman and managing director this week.

“In my 38 years of experience, it is unprecedented that the chairman passes away in the middle of a fund raising,” said Arun Kejriwal, stock market expert and founder of Kejriwal Research and Investment Service.

“Tulsi Tanti was the force behind the company. The company is run professionally, so there are no concerns on that front. But the promoter is the binding agent and whether another member of the family can do that, only time will tell,” said Kejriwal, who has been closely tracking the company for many years.

Suzlon Energy officials and sources close to the management and family told Moneycontrol that the senior management and Tanti family met on October 2 to take stock of the matter and while emotions ran high, they decided to make a statement to the stock exchanges to convey the family’s support to the company. Before the bourses opened on October 3, the promoters and the promoter group made a statement to re-confirm their participation in the proposed rights issue and expressed their intention to subscribe to the full extent of their rights entitlement.

“The Tanti family realised the sensitivity of the timing of the unfortunate incident just before the rights issue and they decided to make a statement to show support. Who will take on Tanti’s role as chairman and managing director, that’s a decision they will make after consultation,” a source privy to the discussions told Moneycontrol.

Another source said that there may be an announcement regarding the new chairman this week, maybe as early as October 5. “There may be an announcement on Dussehra. But we have to understand that everyone has been busy with the last rites and the earliest the family can even sit down and talk would be after the prayer meeting on October 4.”

On October 3, before the last rites were performed, the deceased CMD’s body was brought to the Suzlon office in Pune, where employees lined up to pay their respect. Tanti succumbed to a cardiac arrest on October 1 in Pune, after spending the day in Ahmedabad talking to shareholders and the media. The company aims to lower its interest burden further by paring debt from the proceeds of the issue.

Suzlon Energy's Rs 1,200-crore rights issue will be open from October 11-20 and the record date for the purpose of determining the equity shareholders entitled to receive the rights entitlement in the rights issue is October 4.

The Family

Tanti-led promoter group, which includes members of his family and siblings, collectively hold 14.5 percent in the company after lenders converted part of their loans into equity holding in the company as a part of the debt restructuring in the past.

While Tanti was chairman and managing director– his brothers, Girish and Vinod, are also on the board. Girish Tanti is a non-executive director, while Vinot Tanti is a wholetime director and chief operating officer. Tanti is survived by his wife Gita and children Pranav and Nidhi; none of them is currently actively involved with Suzlon.

Pranav Tanti, after a brief stint with Merril Lynch, worked for Suzlon between 2008 and 2013 and is now based in the US. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is president at Skeiron Green Energy.

Nidhi Tanti too worked with Suzlon Energy as a business review head from 2014 to 2020. She is president at Svagos Technik and based in the US.

At least three senior Suzlon officials said that the company is abuzz with speculations that one of the two children of Tanti will join the company. A third dismissed it as a “guessing game”, adding, “No one saw this coming, nobody was prepared to answer who will replace Tanti.”

“Both Nidhi and Pranav worked at Suzlon, very closely with their father. They stepped out of their roles in Suzlon to pursue their own paths; both are interestingly still connected to the clean energy space. Whether they decide to take up a more active role, we will have to wait and watch,” one senior official from the company said.

The Management

Suzlon had a leadership meeting on October 4, which was attended by senior executives holding key positions across global operations.

“It was an emotional meeting. Everyone was charged up and committed to Tanti’s vision. We know we have an added responsibility now,” a senior executive who was a part of the meeting said.

Suzlon’s management has witnessed a lot of churn in the last decade, with Tanti leading from the front always.

Sumant Sinha, founder, chairman and managing director of ReNew Power, who earlier served as the chief operating officer of Suzlon Energy from 2008-2010, in his tribute to Tanti reminisced how he took charge of the company right after the Lehman Brothers collapsed and the company was faced with uncertain times. “Tulsi bhai decided that he had to have a stronger role in the company—his baby—during the difficult time. He tried to nurture the company and do whatever he could to get the company back in good shape. We did debt restructuring at the time,” he said.

A very senior industry veteran told Moneycontrol that after the recent debt restructuring, Tanti was devoting a substantial part of his time to building a stronger team. “He was always looking out for bright people but now with a lot more focus than ever before,” he said.

One of the sources mentioned above said, “The current management has been handpicked and has been empowered to run the show, he (Tanti) may not have foreseen this but he had the vision that Suzlon would be a professionally run company and he would focus on the big picture.”

In October 2020, Suzlon appointed Ashwani Kumar as the chief executive officer soon after the company completed its second debt restructuring and it was still in the shadows of disruptions caused by COVID. Kumar has 30 years of experience in infrastructure, primarily in power. He previously headed the wind energy vertical of IL&FS, and was looking at the power development business and corporate affairs at engineering major Larsen & Toubro Ltd. Kumar was also president of business development at Reliance Power when the company was aggressively expanding its portfolio.

In August 2021, Himanshu Mody took over as the chief financial officer of the company. He was previously the group executive director for a year and a half with Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited and prior to that he worked for the Essel Group for 20 years.

Officials said that besides the CEO and CFO,  former group CEO and now a strategic advisor to Suzlon, JP Chalasani, has been working very closely with Tanti on some new initiatives, like reinforcement of the senior leadership and may take those initiatives forward. Chalasani is a power industry veteran who has worked with Reliance Power, Punj Lloyd and NTPC.