Tata Sons To Hire Axis Bank’s Shikha Sharma To Head Financial Services Cluster

Axis Bank Ltd.'s Shikha Sharma is likely to join the Tata Group to lead its financial services vertical, one person aware of the development told BloombergQuint.

Tata Sons Ltd.’s Chairman N Chandrasekaran has selected the managing director and chief executive officer of India’s third largest private lender to head the vertical that will include companies like Tata-AIA Life Insurance and Tata Capital, the person said requesting anonymity as the information is not public.

Axis Bank appointed executive search firm Egon Zehnder to find a CEO after Sharma’s term ends next year, Bloomberg had reported citing people familiar with the matter. She is eligible to reapply.

Sharma and Tata Sons did not immediately reply to BloombergQuint’s emailed queries. Axis Bank said the report is “untrue and unfounded” as there is a “laid down process that the board undertakes at regular intervals. But to conclude there is a change in leadership is entirely premature and speculative”.

Chandrasekaran is working on a plan to consolidate more than 100 companies of the $103-billion Tata Group into six clusters, each headed by an independent head.

The Tata’s Financial Services Cluster will include five companies:

• Tata AIA Life Insurance
• Tata AIA General Insurance
• Tata Asset Management
• Tata Capital
• Tata Investment Corporation

Sharma took over as the MD & CEO of Axis Bank in 2009, after working at ICICI Bank Ltd. for 29 years. She expanded Axis Bank’s operations in corporate and retail lending, besides venturing into investment banking with the merger with ENAM’s investment banking business. The bank’s loan book grew more than four-fold to Rs 3.73 lakh crore during her term.

Sharma also led the lender into mutual funds, debenture trustee services, non-banking financial services, retail broking and institutional broking.

The bank, however, has been under pressure from mounting gross non-performing assets, which rose to 5.04 percent at the end of last financial year compared to less than 1 percent when she took over.