Kabir Ahmed Shakir, CFO, Tata Communications, Enhancing Finance Function
With more than 30 years of experience, Kabir Ahmed Shakir, Chief Financial Officer, Tata Communications has played an important role in transforming the finance function in business
Thanks to the financial strategy devised by Shakir, Tata Communications achieved its best ever results. Free cash flows grew four times and profit after tax (PAT) went up 10.1 per cent in FY23 against a three-year average of 2 per cent.
Moreover, Shakir successfully shifted the investor focus from balance sheet to growth and also improved shareholder returns over the last three years.
“Our strong profitability and the cash position has opened up the avenues to explore organic as well as inorganic growth opportunities for the company. Today, the inorganic growth opportunity pipeline is healthy against a blank slate three years ago,” said Shakir.
Under the leadership of Shakir, Tata Communications has done three acquisitions so
far, namely, Switch, Oasis and Kaleyra of which two were funded through internal accruals.
Shakir also drafted the finance strategy to enhance the financial fitness of the company in record time. The strategic theme around the growth plan guided to stitch the right capabilities for accelerated growth, product to platform to digital fabric, thereby increasing the relevance quotient.
For Shakir, today the finance function is a valued business partner providing proactive business insights for delivering the organisation’s growth objectives.
