Kalyan Jewellers re-appoints Warburg Pincus’ Anish Saraf on company’s board | Mint

Kalyan Jewellers India Ltd on Thursday announced the re-appointment of Anish Kumar Saraf, managing director at private equity firm Warburg Pincus, as non-executive director of the company’s board.
Warburg Pincus had first invested in the jewellery chain in 2014—the fund exited Kalyan Jewellers in August last year after selling a part of its stake in the company to promoter T. S. Kalyanaraman and the remaining via a block deal.
Also Read | Rising promoter pledge singes Kalyan Jewellers stock
However, on Thursday, the company announced the re-appointment of Saraf along with other executives to the company’s board, according to an exchange filing.
“We have re-appointed Anish Saraf—we are happy that he accepted and he is a non-executive director; we have appointed him for three years. Vinod Rai has been re-appointed as the chairman. Salil (Nair) and Anil (Sadasivan Nair), they also played an important role, they have also been re-appointed. We have enjoyed the journey so far with all of them, and we believe that they are also part of our success. So, we still look forward to working with them in the next phase of expansion,” Ramesh Kalyanaraman, executive director, Kalyan Jewellers India said during the company’s earnings call Thursday.
Rai is a former Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Salil Nair is the non-executive director of the company, while Anil Sadasivan Nair, former CEO and managing partner of Law & Kenneth Saatchi & Saatchi, is independent director.
Saraf has been on the board of Kalyan Jewellers since 2018, and has been associated with Warburg Pincus India since 2006.
Warburg Pincus had invested ₹1,200 crore in Kalyan Jewellers back in 2014 for a minority stake in the Kerala-based jeweller.
Under stress
The news comes as stock of Kalyan Jewellers Ltd has been under stress following market disclosures last week that the company’s promoters had pledged an additional 5.79% of their stake, taking the total promoter pledge to 25.87%, per a story by Mint citing data from BSE.
The company’s stock lost 2% to settle at ₹440.30 on the BSE on Thursday.
Kalyan Jewellers was in the news earlier this month amid allegations of a tax raid and of bribes paid to an unnamed fund manager to inflate the stock. On 14 January, Ramesh Kalyanaraman, the company’s promoter and executive director, dismissed rumours of any raids at any of the company’s premises.
On Thursday, the company reported a 21.2% jump in consolidated profit for the three months ended December to ₹219 crore. Consolidated revenue grew 40% year-on-year to ₹7,287 crore. Kalyan Jewellers has 349 showrooms across India, the US and the Middle East.