United Spirits Ltd (USL) has appointed Anand Kripalu, the former head of Cadbury India, as chief executive officer of the company with effect from May 1, according to a stock market disclosure.
Kripalu had joined the company last October as CEO-designate, soon after Diageo acquired a significant minority stake in the firm.
Previously, Kripalu was president, India and Southeast Asia, at Mondelez India, between March 2010 and September 2013. Mondelez was created after the global acquisition of Cadbury by Kraft.
Kripalu is succeeding Ashok Capoor who is retiring after 22 years with Vijay Mallya’s UB Group. Cooper, however, will continue with the company as president, strategy, the disclosure said.
Capoor had been serving as president and MD of USL since May 2, 2011. Previously, he had served as deputy president of USL since October 4, 2007 and as chief operating officer of Regional Profit Centre (West) of USL since June 2001.
Kripalu has been appointed to lead USL at a time when Diageo Plc is looking to buy out an additional 26 per cent equity holding and has made an open offer revising its previous offer. If fully tendered, it would cost it as much as Rs 11,489 crore ($1.9 billion).
Diageo first started its tie up with USL in 2012, when it signed a deal to acquire up to 53.4 per cent of United Spirits, in a multi-tiered transaction worth as much as $2.1 billion. However, it ended with much less as the previous open offer did not find many takers.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
