L&T must shed weight, fix future head: chairman Naik

L&T chairman AM Naik, who completed 50 years with the Indian engineering major this  month, told employees at an event to mark the milestone that the only way to protect the company against takeover threats of the kind seen in the past was by creating more value and building ''capability''.

Naik, due to retire in September 2017 when he turns 75, also said L&T expects to finalise his successor within this period.

He said he expects the company to reduce the number of non-core businesses to convert it to a leaner structure with more focussed operations.

He addressed employees, former executives and members of different unions and associations within the company at the L&T complex at Powai in Mumbai, standing next to 'C Block', from where he started his career in 1965 as a junior engineer at a salary of Rs670 a month.

Naik said these two steps – increasing focus and finding a successor - were his priority.''My plan for the next two and a half years is to build a team and complete the succession planning exercise,'' he said at the function attended by former president A P J Abdul Kalam, former and current members of the L&T board, and the entire workforce of the engineering company.

Finding a successor to Naik has been a much-discussed topic at India's largest infrastructure engineering company, which has weathered takeover attempts by two of the country's largest business houses - Reliance Industries and the Aditya Birla Group.

The Mumbai-based company has also been grappling with issues of running widely-diversified businesses, including heavy civil infrastructure, buildings and factories, transport infrastructure, power transmission and distribution, and water and renewable energy.

''L&T has too many businesses, and needs to reduce the complexity by rationalising its portfolio so that it becomes a manageable company with a degree of focus,'' said Naik. ''If I can finish this, I will be a happy man when I retire from this wonderful company of ours.''

The company has already embarked on a restructuring process that includes grouping all its businesses into 14 broad verticals, each headed by a CEO.