Pratik Pota, the man widely credited for Jubilant’s turnaround had resigned as CEO in January 2022.
Since then, there has been a significant overhang of his resignation on the Company’s stock price (corrected by >40%).
It was though in any case over extended, trading at a trailing P/E of >150x then. Even after the decline, it is currently trading at about 85x. News of Pota’s exit provided the much needed excuse for the correction.
Company today has announced Sameer Khetarpal as the new CEO & MD.
Key points to note –
- Sameer would be taking charge from September 5, 2022 (after 4 months).
- He is currently with Amazon as Director Category Management. Over the last 6.5 years at Amazon, he has worked on Amazon Fresh, Amazon Food and Amazon Pharmacy.
- Previously he was a Partner at McKinsey, Service Delivery Leader at Genpact and Production Manager at Unilever.
Sameer has solid credentials to take up the new position at Jubilant.
However, given a starkly different job profile and performance benchmarks set by Pota – I would not be in a hurry.
Jubilant’s continued expensive valuations further make me watchful.