BoR may discuss validity of voting tomorrow
Amid the continuing uncertainty over the validity of voting conducted by the Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) shareholders on Monday, the bank board is likely to meet tomorrow to discuss the legal opinion on the matter.
A source close to the development said the meeting has been convened after majority of the 15 BoR directors called for clearing the uncertainties on the outcome of the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) which witnessed dramatic events following court interventions.
"The BoR board will meet tomorrow to discuss the legal opinion it received on the validity of the voting conducted at the EGM. The meeting has been called after a majority of the independent directors of the bank demanded it," a source familiar with the issues told PTI.
On Monday, amid high drama following a Kolkata court stay on the shareholders meet, and a subsequent Calcutta High Court order vacating the stay order of the lower court, investors went ahead with voting on the company resolution for a merger with ICICI Bank. But by the time the HC order came in, the BoR management had already cancelled the meet,forcing shareholders to elect a chairman from among themselves and went ahead with the voting.
Yesterday, RBI-appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive of the bank G Padmanabhan said the bank has sought legal opinion to examine whether the votes cast by the shareholders are legally binding or not.
The bank is understood to have received the version from legal experts on the validity of shareholders' poll but the details are not yet known.
Both BoR and ICICI Bank shareholders had voted in favour of the merger of the two entities at a swap ratio of 1:4.72.
BoR has nine independent directors--PN Bhandari, KN Bhandari, MR Calla, Pran Agarwal, KG Kurian, Vipul Mehta, Dharinder Tayal, Salil Kapoor, and Nitin Goel. It has five RBI nominees also on the board, including Padmanabhan.
ICICI Bank last month agreed to take over BoR in a share-swap deal that valued the Udaipur-based bank at over Rs 3,000 crore. The share swap ratio was fixed at one ICICI Bank share for every 4.72 shares of BoR. The merger can happen only if the shareholders of both the banks approve the swap ratio, post which the lenders will move approach the Reserve Bank.