Seven months after Thyrocare got its first new CEO in 25 years, Arindam Haldar has quit the listed diagnostics company for personal reasons.
Haldar, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta, had joined the firm from Fortis Healthcare-owned SRL where he was CEO.
He had entered SRL as chief operating officer in 2016. Prior to that, he was with companies including Sterlite Technologies, General Mills India and Colgate.
Haldar's appointment as Thyrocare CEO was significant as the diagnostics chain had been led by founder Arokiaswamy Velumani since 1995.
Velumani was holding the posts of chairman as well as CEO and managing director.
He had told VCCircle last year that the decision to have a separate CEO and managing director was in line with the rules of the capital markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
In March 2018, SEBI had set an April 2020 deadline for listed companies to split the posts of chairman and managing director. In January this year, it extended the deadline to April 2022.
Thyrocare received its first external funding in 2006 from Brand Capital, the investment arm of Bennett, Coleman and Co Ltd, the media house better known as the Times Group.
In 2010, homegrown private equity firms CX Partners and Samara Capital invested $45.5 million as Brand Capital exited. This was followed by investment from venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners in 2012.
In 2016, Thyrocare made a spectacular debut on the stock exchanges, giving it a market value of Rs 3,320 crore (around $500 million then) on the day of listing. The company also gave exits to investors in the process.
In March 2020, Nalanda Capital, an India-focused private equity-style investor in public equities, bought a minority stake in its first healthcare bet.
Shares of Thyrocare were up 4.86% on Friday at Rs 1,057.95 apiece till the time of writing.
