Gujarat announced that Jagatramka’s resignation was “reluctantly accepted” by the other board members who also put on record their deep appreciation for his services.
Over the years he became a local identity in the Illawarra region of New South Wales.
Credited with saving the Wollongong Hawks basketball team from financial ruin, the Illawarra Mercury consequently named Jagatramka as person of the year in 2009.
Yet his public profile has since suffered, especially over the past 1.5 years, as Gujarat struggled with planning department approvals, the coal price downturn, meeting reporting guidelines and most recently with paying its workforce.
“Jagatramka no longer gets a rock star reception,”Illawarra Mercury reported.
“He’s still smiling, shaking hands and laughing easily but his laughter at Wednesday’s [shareholders] meeting did not go down so well.
“And his outburst in front of the media, blaming the company’s woes on various targets including the carbon price and the Mercury, was an extraordinary display.
“With the many suppliers, contractors and workers still unpaid and the development approval for the Russell Vale expansion still a way off, there are many wondering if they didn’t give their trust away a little too easily.”
Singh, the head of Jindal’s Australian operations, was formerly a non-executive director of Gujarat.
He effectively became Gujarat’s new chairman and interim chief executive officer on Saturday.
Almost two weeks ago Jindal agreed to take up Gujarat’s long-flagged share offer, which is expected to give the Indian steelmaker 53.63% of the Illawarra underground coal producer.
Jindal imports about 2 million tonnes of coal a year from Australia and there are local concerns that jobs will be shed from Gujarat’s circa 500 workforce.
Jagatramka was previously the vice chairman and managing director of Gujarat’s Indian steelmaking parent company before it entered Australia’s coal scene with the purchase of the old South Bulli colliery in 2004 – which has since been transformed into the NRE No.1 longwall mine.
