Cyient Appoints HCLTech Veteran Sukamal Banerjee As Chief Executive Officer

Cyient Ltd. said on Wednesday that the company has appointed Sukamal Banerjee—who spent nearly three decades at HCL Technologies Ltd.—as its chief executive officer and executive director for five years, with immediate effect.

The engineering and IT services provider's board approved his appointment at a meeting on Wednesday, subject to shareholder and government approvals, Cyient said in an exchange filing.

Banerjee will also be classified as a key managerial personnel, and will be a part of the senior management of the company's unit Cyient DLM Ltd., the filing added.

Before this, Banerjee was the CEO of digital engineering firm Xoriant.

His appointment as Cyient's chief executive came following the departure of Karthikeyan Natarajan on Jan. 23, a move that sent shares sliding by more than 23% a day after his resignation was announced. The stock has declined by nearly 16% since then.

In Banerjee's 27-year career at HCLTech, he held several leadership roles, before he resigned in 2023 recently as corporate vice president to join Xoriant. He managed a business worth over $1.5 billion across digital and engineering services, overseeing global operations and leading a team of more than 20,000 engineers in over 30 countries.

Banerjee, who holds a Bachelors' Degree in Mechanical Engineering and MBA in Finance & Strategy, also led HCLTech's transformation initiatives, conceptualising and driving strategic programmes, including incubating and leading the 'IoT WoRKS' business unit globally.

At Xoriant, Banerjee will be succeeded by LTI MindTree Ltd.'s former Chief Growth Officer Rohit Kedia, according to a separate statement issued on Tuesday.

Shares of Cyient closed 0.44% higher at Rs 1,476.50 apiece on the National Stock Exchange on Wednesday, compared to a 0.05% fall in the benchmark Nifty 50 index. The stock has fallen by 28.72% in the last 12 months.

Out of 24 analysts tracking the company, 11 suggest 'sell', six recommend ‘hold' and seven maintain ‘sell', according to Bloomberg data. The average of 12-month analysts' price targets implies a potential upside of 19.4%.