In legal fight with Lodha family, MP Birla firms set for showdown at AGMs

Punjab Produce Trading Co (PPTCL), a promoter entity, has proposed Satish Pradhan's name as a director in place of Harsh Vardhan Lodha, who is also in race in Birla Cable board

The administrators of Priyamvada Birla estate, who are fighting a legal battle with Kolkata’s Lodha family, have asked the shareholders of various MP Birla group companies to vote for their nominees on the boards of all the four group firms.
 
Punjab Produce Trading Co (PPTCL), a promoter entity, has proposed Satish Pradhan’s name as a director in place of Harsh Vardhan Lodha, who is also in the race in Birla Cable board.
 
Citing corporate governance breaches in MP Birla firms, PPTCL has also proposed the name of chartered accountant Dhanpat Ram Agarwal as their nominee on Birla Cable board. The holding firm also proposed the appointment of Agarwal and retired Judge Shyamal Kanti Chakrabarti to the board of Vindhya Telelinks and Universal Cables. In Birla Corporation, the administrators have nominated RS Thakur and Chakrabarti as directors.
 
With this, the annual general meetings (AGMs) of Birla Cable, Vindhya Telelinks and Universal Cables, scheduled for Thursday, are expected to be stormy. This is because the Lodhas, who control the companies, have asked the shareholders to reject PPTCL’s proposals citing “conflict of interest.” The AGM of Birla Corporation is scheduled on September 29.
 
In a notice to the shareholders, Birla Cable said the proposals by PPTCL are on the dictates of retired Judge Justice Mohit Shah and A C Chakrabortti, two of the three joint administrators to the estate of late Priyamvada Birla.
 
The third administrator, Mahendra Kumar Sharma, is totally opposed to them, the company said.