Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Adani Ports names Sreedhar Menon as CFO
The GMA Admin
Adani Ports appoints Sreedhar Krishna Menon as CFO from March 1, 2026, replacing D. Muthukumaran amid strong Q3 momentum and outlook.
Adani Ports appoints Sreedhar Krishna Menon as CFO from March 1
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) has named Sreedhar Krishna Menon as its next Chief Financial Officer, with the appointment effective March 1, 2026. Menon will replace D. Muthukumaran, who is set to step down from the CFO and Key Managerial Personnel role at the close of business on February 28, 2026, as part of a broader leadership transition within the Adani Group portfolio.
The timing is notable because the CFO change comes alongside a quarter in which APSEZ reported strong momentum across the business and updated its outlook for the fiscal year ending March 2026. Reuters reported that Adani Ports raised the upper end of its annual core earnings forecast by 8 billion rupees to 228 billion rupees, citing stronger-than-anticipated growth and the consolidation impact of its Australia export terminal acquisition.
From Global Martech Alliance’s lens, finance leadership appointments at infrastructure majors matter well beyond accounting: the CFO increasingly sits at the intersection of capital allocation, data governance, procurement discipline, risk controls, and the ROI frameworks that decide which digital programs scale—and which quietly stall. This is especially relevant in ports and logistics, where the “digital layer” (visibility, planning, pricing, customer experience, and partner integration) can be as decisive as physical capacity.
What changed: leadership transition at APSEZ
APSEZ’s board-level change is straightforward in sequence: Muthukumaran exits the CFO position at the end of February, and Menon assumes the role from March 1. Reuters also described Menon as a “group insider” and confirmed that he will replace Muthukumaran, who has held the role since 2022.
While CFO transitions are often treated as routine, in capital-intensive operators they can shape how aggressively a company funds new assets, integrates acquisitions, and modernizes systems that support scale. Reuters reported that APSEZ’s stock rose as much as 9.54% on the day, in a move Reuters linked to the forecast update, the Australia terminal acquisition narrative, and broader market factors. In the same Reuters report, the company is described as India’s largest private port operator by volume—an operational scale that tends to magnify the value of tighter financial controls and clearer performance dashboards.
Why this CFO appointment lands now
The appointment lands in a moment when APSEZ is communicating confidence about FY2026 performance and reporting stronger quarterly numbers. Reuters reported consolidated net profit rose nearly 21% to 30.54 billion rupees for the quarter ended December 31, with revenue from operations up nearly 22% year-on-year to 97.05 billion rupees and cargo volume rising 9%.
The same Reuters report ties part of that momentum to “sustained” performance across four business units and to the consolidation of Australia’s North Queensland Export Terminal (NQXT). Reuters adds that APSEZ completed the acquisition of NQXT in December and describes it as a natural deep-water, multi-user export terminal with capacity of 50 million tons per annum.
For operators, acquisitions and consolidation aren’t just corporate events—they create immediate work: policy alignment, KPI harmonization, cross-entity reporting, internal control design, and systems integration that can either accelerate synergy capture or delay it. This is where CFO leadership style matters, because the finance function becomes the “source of truth” for performance narratives shared with the board, investors, lenders, and strategic partners.
Sreedhar Krishna Menon: credentials and experience snapshot
Public reporting describes Menon as a cost accountant and management graduate who has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. PSU Connect reports he brings more than 30 years of experience across finance and accounts disciplines and has held leadership positions at Pennar Group, AFL Private Limited, Bharti Airtel Limited, and AdaniConnex.
Reuters also notes Menon’s prior leadership roles at Pennar Group, AFL Private Limited, Bharti Airtel, and AdaniConnex, and states that he has more than 30 years of experience in finance and accounts. (Reuters’ longer report focuses more heavily on APSEZ earnings and guidance while still confirming the CFO appointment and replacement sequence.)
Beyond these company statements, multiple public professional profile databases list Menon as having served as Chief Financial Officer at AdaniConneX, and previously as Chief Finance Officer at Airtel Nigeria, including a period as Acting Chief Executive Officer. Those same databases list additional senior finance leadership roles linked to Africa Towers N.V. and Bharti Airtel International (Netherland) B.V., alongside multiple Bharti Airtel finance roles earlier in his career.
Taken together, the publicly visible narrative is consistent: Menon’s career has blended high-scale finance leadership with exposure to multi-market operations, which tends to sharpen two capabilities CFOs increasingly need in 2026—standardization (one operating model) and localization (fit-to-market decisions without losing governance).
What this could mean for digital and governance priorities
CFOs are now central to digital transformation because “digital” is no longer a separate line item—it is embedded in procurement (systems and vendors), compliance (controls and auditability), and performance management (unit economics and productivity). In ports and logistics, that typically touches:
- Revenue assurance and billing accuracy, especially where contract structures are complex and service bundles evolve.
- Working capital discipline and vendor management, where integration and automation can reduce leakage.
- Forecasting and scenario planning, where CFO-led models drive investment pacing.
- Governance in data sharing with customers and partners, where “trust” is operational.
None of this requires turning finance into an IT department—but it does require finance leaders to be comfortable demanding measurement, repeatability, and control design before scaling programs. When an operator reports strong growth and integrates a major export terminal asset, it usually increases the premium on consistent reporting and faster “close-to-insight” cycles across the group. Reuters specifically links the earnings forecast raise to stronger growth and the acquisition narrative, underscoring why execution discipline becomes the story behind the story.
A second implication is stakeholder communication. Reuters quotes equity research commentary that revenue growth aligned with estimates and that broad-based growth reiterates the company’s ability to meet long-term targets. In practical terms, the CFO is often the executive who translates operational performance into that investor-ready language—without overpromising and without hiding risks.
Context: the outgoing CFO and continuity signals
Muthukumaran’s exit is framed as a move to another role within the Adani portfolio, not an abrupt departure. That matters because it signals continuity: finance leadership transitions can be disruptive when they indicate internal disagreement, but a portfolio move often suggests planned succession and knowledge transfer. PSU Connect explicitly describes the shift as part of an “ongoing leadership development process” within the Adani Group.
For additional context, Business Today reported that APSEZ appointed D. Muthukumaran as CFO and Key Managerial Personnel in July 2022, with an expected joining date of July 25, 2022. This aligns with Reuters’ note that Muthukumaran has held the CFO role since 2022.
From an operating standpoint, that kind of timeline means APSEZ is not dealing with CFO churn every few quarters—rather, it is executing a more typical multi-year rotation. If Menon’s appointment follows the same pattern, it suggests APSEZ wants stable finance leadership as it continues scaling, integrating assets, and managing market expectations.
The macro note Reuters flagged
Reuters reported that APSEZ’s stock move also came amid broader market strength linked in part to U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of reducing tariffs on Indian goods. Whether or not tariffs remain the main driver of logistics growth, that mention is a reminder that infrastructure operators are exposed to policy shifts, trade flows, and global capital sentiment—factors that CFOs must incorporate into hedging, funding mix, and risk frameworks.
What to watch next (practical signals)
For readers tracking leadership moves through a business-and-technology lens, the next few quarters typically reveal the “real” CFO agenda via observable operational signals rather than speeches. Based on what Reuters highlighted—guidance raise, acquisition consolidation, and strong quarterly numbers—the watchlist is likely to include:
- How quickly the group tightens performance reporting across business units (speed of close, quality of disclosures, and metric consistency).
- How capital allocation decisions balance capacity expansion, integration work, and modernization.
- How governance evolves around cross-entity reporting and internal controls as new assets are consolidated.
- Whether the company sustains the operational momentum reflected in profit, revenue, and cargo volume growth metrics Reuters reported for the December quarter.
For Global Martech Alliance readers, there’s also a broader lesson: CFO appointments at infrastructure leaders are increasingly a proxy signal for how seriously the enterprise will treat measurement, governance, and scalable execution—the same foundations that determine whether digital programs generate compounding returns or fragmented tool sprawl.