SN Subrahmanyan is taking charge as CEO and Managing Director of the $17-billion engineering and infrastructure giant Larsen & Toubro on July 1. He will replace AM Naik, who has been heading the company for almost two decades. Naik will continue as Non-Executive Chairman for three years, starting October 1.

Subrahmanyan joined the construction business of L&T in 1984 as a Project Planning Engineer after completing a degree in civil engineering and post-graduation in business management. Over these years, he was leading the group’s engineering and construction business, guiding large EPC projects in India and abroad.

He has played a crucial role in securing and managing the EPC contracts for four major international airports — Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai. He was also instrumental in establishing L&T’s presence in West Asia by winning large projects in Oman, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia. He has also led the spread into Africa.

In 2011, Subrahmanyan was inducted into the L&T board, and in 2015, elevated as Deputy Managing Director and President. The decision to appoint Subrahmanyan as CEO and AM Naik as Non-Executive Chairman was taken at a board meeting in April.

“Taking into account the need for seamless transition of leadership in an organisation of the scale and complexity of L&T, the board of directors requested Naik to provide advice, guidance and mentorship to the company’s executive management in the capacity of Non-Executive Chairman,” the company said then in a statement.

Naik, the company’s long-term leader for almost two decades, is seen responsible for establishing L&T as a strong player in engineering and infrastructure, defence and space research fields. He also created a large number of new businesses for the company. Naik was appointed CEO in 1999 and Chairman in 2003. Between 1999 and 2013, when Naik was the CEO, the MNC’s market capitalisation rose from ₹4,400 crore (in 1999) to ₹1,58,000 crore (in 2017). The challenges before Subrahmanyan, will be keeping up with the company’s strategic plans for divesting non-core businesses and reducing debt, while continuing restructuring and optimisation on the one hand, and on the other, pushing forward in promising verticals such as defence, which Naik has been quite bullish on.

“Our idea is to take hi-tech and super hi-tech which includes aerospace, defence, nuclear (revenues) to 10 per cent,” Naik said recently at a press conference in Mumbai.

L&T’s performance in the last quarter of FY17 has been better than in the previous quarters, although the company has missed its order inflow and revenue guidance for FY17.

The firm announced it eyes 12-14 per cent growth in the order inflow for the current financial year citing slight pick up in order allotment by the government and expectation of larger public expenditure in sectors such aslike infrastructure, smart cities and defence.

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