Indeed, this company does not have to answer to any promoters. L&T is one more such company. BAT hold significant stake in ITC, can they not influence and drive the management and prevent the wastage?
Also BAT prevented stock option for Aditya Puri and director team as per one article back in 2019 and so their cash salary was increased significantly. Had significant portion of their compensation linked to long term stock options, they may take decisions keeping shareholders in mind. But this would reduce BAT stake…so that’s a double whammy. When HDFC CEO retired, his majority wealth was in his stake in HDFC Bank…I don’t think that holds true for ITC.
As as mentioned before, all PPTs and directions so far are far from satisfactory from the management. Until it is seen in actions like for eg seen by Tata’s when they started selling and coming out of non-core and loss making businesses, its sadly just time pass…