Gelli To Call It Quits From Gtb Board, Finally

Former Global Trust Bank chairman and managing director and promoter Ramesh Gelli has decided to resign from the bank's board.

Speaking to Business Standard, Gelli said: "For the best interests of the bank, I have decided to step down from the board."

Gelli had offered to stand as a director of the bank.

"The bank had gone through some kind of criticism... For me the bank is more important. Even on April 12 when I stepped down as the CMD I had proposed that I would step out of the bank's board. However, the board felt that I should continue...," Gelli said.

Industry sources insist that Gelli was forced to resign as the Reserve Bank of India had stepped up its pressure on him. Gelli refuted this saying "The RBI has not forced me to step down. There has been no pressure from the RBI."

Gelli added that the bank would be inducting two more directors on the board. "We are looking at two professionals--one who is familiar with the small-scale industry and the another who is familiar with the financial institutions," said Gelli adding the latter could be an ex-banker or an academician.

Meanwhile, GTB has proposed to appoint two new directors at the bank's annual general meeting to be held on June 16. They are Parimala Anand and Badiga Ramakrishna, who basically represent the promoters group, as directors.

Earlier, senior bank officials in Hyderabad said Gelli has been insisting on moving out of the board for some time now. "In the last board meeting, he insisted on moving out of the board for a year. Though we persuaded him for the time being, he is still seriously thinking about it. He should be taking a decision before the ensuing AGM," a senior bank official said.

GTB has also proposed a resolution to re-appoint Gelli as a director. Though his term ended on April 12,2001, he was appointed as additional director at a meeting held on the same day.

Accordingly, Gelli holds directorship up to the date of AGM. If the board decides to withdraw the resolution, on the "request" of Gelli, automatically he ceases to exist as director. Going by the current developments, this is how it is set to happen.