Besides Mr Singh, group HRD chief Santrup Mishra and Sanjeev Aga, who heads the group's IT business, are the other candidates for the job. However, Mr Singh is believed to enjoy an edge.
Mr Singh — who heads BMCL's strategy planning cell — is the only BMCL director who does not hold any independent business portfolio. This may give him an edge over others, say to group insiders.
The group has also zeroed in on BMCL director Saurabh Mishra, who currently heads the cement business of Grasim Industries, to take charge of the cement company (Cemco) that would be formed by demerging Larsen & Toubro's cement division. The Aditya Birla group, which has struck an agreement to acquire a 51% stake in Cemco, in stages, is currently working with Larsen & Toubro in finalising the scheme of arrangement for the demerger.
"Mr Mishra would head the new company although his exact designation is still to be finalised," said a top group official.
Following the takeover of Cemco, which is subject to the finalisation of the demerger scheme and the regulatory approvals thereafter, the Aditya Birla group would emerge as the largest cement maker in India and the seventh largest globally with a combined capacity of 31 million tonnes. However, there are no plans as of now to merge Cemco with Grasim. "It would be premature to talk about a merger between Cemco and Grasim," group officials said.
The new BMCL MD will have to play a crucial role since the group is planning to make BMCL more active."BMCL is currently not playing a very effective role in formulating group's strategies," said a top group official. The group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla heads BMCL which has eight directors. The directors include Debu Bhattacharya (who will continue to remain a member), Bharat Singh, MC Bagrodia, SK Mitra (head, financial services), Sanjeev Aga (head, IT business) Santrup Mishra (head, HR), Saurabh Mishra (head cement and telecom) , Shailendra Jain (head, VSF business).