Monisha Abraham has replaced Nedal Salem as the new Managing Director (MD), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and n Executive Director of Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC (CTC) with immediate effect, making the first female head to lead the Sri Lankan unit of British-American Tobacco (BAT).
The CTC which maintains the Ciggerate monoply in the country today announced that it has accepted the resignation of Salem as an Executive Director and CEO/MD of CTC with effect from 1st of December 2021.
CTC maintains higher participation of females in its leadership roles, which is at around 29 percent, although female employees only account for only 15 percent of its workforce.
In the September quarter, CTC’s topline and bottom line saw declines. Its revenue was from Rs.11.03 billion to Rs.8.5 billion while the earnings stagnated to Rs.3.8 billion from Rs.4.9 billion a year back. The Company faces challenging times in Sri Lanka with rising taxes, inflation amidst the static disposable income of the population, which have reduced the affordability of legal cigarettes in the market. Further, the Pandemic-related disruptions also impacted its sales.
The Government is also planning to introduce Special Goods and Services Tax (GST) from next year onwards.
She’s joining from Ibecor, a company fully owned by Heineken International, where she served as the Managing Director. During a career spanning over 16 years with Heineken, she has held various senior Management roles across five countries. Abraham joined Heineken Dubai in 2005, as Trade Marketing Manager and in less than 2 years, was appointed Marketing Manager for the Gulf region. In 2009, she moved to the Netherlands as the Regional Marketing Director for the Africa-Middle East region and later served as the Managing Director for Almaza in Lebanon from 2014 to 2017. She then moved to Heineken Hanoi as its Managing Director from 2017 to 2019, leading the Northern area of Vietnam.
During this time Monisha was instrumental in spearheading the smooth integration of the northern and southern operating entities. In 2019, Monisha moved to Brussels, Belgium where she took over as Managing Director of Ibecor, a 100% Heineken owned company specializing in Inbound Logistics and Transportation for Africa and Middle East. At Ibecor she was responsible for transforming the organisation by expanding its business reach to Asia Pacific and the Caribbean.
Possessing more than 25 years of experience in Marketing & General Management roles across the FMCG sector, Monisha has built a reputation as a leader who drives robust business strategies while developing people and fostering high performing teams. She has continuously worked towards building networks to facilitate collaboration across organizations as well as externally to drive business priorities, delivering sustainable growth in volumes and profits. Monisha holds a Bachelor’s Degree and an MBA from India.
Following the announcement yesterday, CTC shares were marginally down by Rs.1 to Rs.893.75 per share. CTC is the sixth-largest listed firm on the CSE with a market cap of Rs.167.42 billion.