Colgate-Palmolive (India) share price rose two percent on March 11 after the company appointed outsider and Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) executive Prabha Narasimhan as CEO and MD in place of Ram Raghavan.
“The nomination and remuneration committee (NRC) of the Colgate Palmolive board at its meeting noted that effective April 16 Raghavan has been promoted to president of enterprise oral care for Colgate Palmolive Company, the parent of Colgate-Palmolive (India) Ltd, and will be based out of its headquarters at New York,” the company said in its March 10 release.
Raghavan has informed Colgate-Palmolive (India) of his decision to resign from the office of MD and CEO with effect from April 15.
Narasimhan’s appointment will be effective from September 1.
Check out what brokerages say about the stock and the company:
JPMorgan
The research firm has kept a neutral rating on Colgate-Palmolive with a target at Rs 1,580 per share.
An external hire for CEO position is a bit of an unanticipated move. The key priorities for new CEO include accelerating revenue growth for oral care business.
Strengthening non-oral care portfolio positioning will be one of the focus areas, it added.
Nomura
The broking house has maintained a buy rating on the stock with a target price at Rs 1,700.
Narasimhan is a new CEO, a first top management worker from outside. The change in guard indicates renewed efforts to regain share.
Nomura remains cautious on the company’s medium-term growth prospects.
At 09:24 hrs Colgate Palmolive (India) was quoting at Rs 1,502.10, up Rs 4.85 or 0.32 percent on the BSE.