The ₹6,800-crore turnover Exide Industries has elevated Deputy Managing Director Gautam Chatterjee as Managing Director and CEO. Chatterjee will replace PK Kataky who will retire on April 30.

The announcement came alongside 29 per cent higher net profit in March quarter and a higher dividend.

In a stock market notification on Wednesday, the company announced that Gautam Chatterjee will takeover as Managing Director and CEO from May 1.

Chatterjee was previously with the automotive battery business of the company and, is the first Bengali to head the company since 2006.

The company board also elevated Arun Mittal, as a new whole-time director of Exide.

Sources told BusinessLine that Mittal will handle industrial battery portfolio, while the existing director industrial, Subir Chakraborty, will henceforth manage the important automotive division.

The management change coincided with a dramatic improvement in Exide’s financials.

The company recorded nearly 29 per cent growth in net profit to approximately ₹178 crore during January-May 2016, against the same period last year.

The higher profits came on less than eight per cent growth in turnover, indicating surge in margins. The net margin (net profit on net sales) reached 10.08 per cent – highest since March 2015.

Apparently, the company reaped the benefits of improvement in auto sales and higher sales of inverter batteries due to the scorching summer.

“Growth in automotive and motorcycle battery sale continued along with improvement in volume of inverter and UPS battery during this quarter,” Kataky was quoted saying in a press release.

Annual profits increased by 14 per cent to ₹622.77 crore at a net margin of 9.13 per cent — highest in five years.

With higher profits came higher dividend.

On Wednesday, the company announced 80 paise final dividend on shares of ₹1 each, thereby taking the total dividend for the last fiscal to ₹2.40, up from ₹2.20 in the previous year.

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