OnMobile loses third CFO in 3 years as Rajesh Kunnath puts in his papers

Rajesh Kunnath, chief financial officer (CFO) of the country's largest mobile value added service (VAS) firm OnMobile Global Ltd, has resigned from his position at the company. While details on Kunnath's next move are not available as of now, according to a BSE filing by OnMobile, he has left the company to pursue another opportunity. The resignation will be effective as of March 28, 2014 and he will remain the CFO at the company till then.

Kunnath is the third CFO to leave the company in as many years. Back in 2011, Rajesh Moorti, OnMobile's CFO at the time had put in his papers after serving the company for over five years. Post that, Amit Rastogi joined the firm as its CFO in early 2012, only to resign from his post within four months of joining the company. Kunnath had replaced Rastogi in May 2012.

Prior to OnMobile, Kunnath served as the CFO of Times Internet Ltd for over three years. He had previously worked for a year in the ad-for-equity investment unit of Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (the Times of India group) called Private Treaties as CFO. Before that, he was the head of finance at Himatsingka Seide, VP (finance) at BCCL and also worked at Heinz India, Hindustan Lever and ABB. He holds a B.Com degree in accountancy from St Josephs College of Commerce and ACA qualification in accountancy from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Bangalore-headquartered OnMobile saw further deterioration in its bottom-line, reporting a net loss of Rs 8.37 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2013, against net profit of Rs 20.6 crore in the year-ago period. The company has been seeing a sequential decline in margins after the LiveWire acquisition but its other income had supported the company from moving into the red in the second quarter. This cushion was not available last quarter pulling down the firm into the red.

In particular, the company's content fee & royalty payments besides other sales & services expenses and depreciation provision rose sharply to sink its margins. While its domestic revenues continue to decline due to the implementation of TRAI Consent Gateway guidelines, its international business buoyed overall revenues by 28 per cent year-on-year to Rs 225.47 crore, the same as the previous quarter ended September 30.

In the recent past, the firm was hit by corporate governance issues related to its co-founder and former chief Arvind Rao. Last month, the OnMobile board declassified Rao as 'promoter' of the company.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)