Info Edge's co-founder & CFO Ambarish Raghuvanshi resigns

Ambarish Raghuvanshi, co-founder and chief financial officer (CFO) of Info Edge (India), which runs a slew of consumer Internet portals including Naukri.com, has put in his papers. He will relinquish his position effective May 2014, to look for new career opportunities.

Raghuvanshi is a co-promoter of the company and has been associated with it for 14 years (he had joined the firm back in 2000). He also holds around 1.74 per cent stake in the company, which is worth close to Rs 97 crore. He will, however, continue to work in an advisory role with the company post his cessation of office in May this year.

Prior to joining Info Edge, Raghuvanshi had worked at companies like Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, and the Bank of America, where he assisted and advised corporates across a wide spectrum of the industries on capital raising and mergers and acquisitions. He holds a bachelor of commerce degree from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM) from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

To enable a seamless transition of duties, Info Edge has also appointed Chintan Thakkar as its CFO-designate with immediate effect. Thakkar has around two-and-a-half decades of experience in finance, consulting and operations, and has held the position of CFO-India at Computer Associates Inc. in the past. The audit committee of the company approved Thakkar's appointment on Monday, which was also endorsed by the board of directors.

Info Edge had reported a 16 per cent rise in revenue, which stood at Rs 123.3 crore for the three months ended December 31, 2013, over the year-ago period. Net profit rose by just 4.5 per cent to Rs 32.2 crore in the same period. Sequentially, revenue was flat while net profit declined and EBITDA margin shrank.

Last month, the company had infused Rs 4.5 crore ($724,275) more in online photography startup Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd. The investment was done through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares. Prior to that, it invested Rs 10 crore ($1.6 million) more in Applect Learning Systems, which runs an online education and assessment venture through Meritnation.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)