BSE poser on AGMs of Anil Ambani cos; many reasons say firms

With BSE questioning scheduling of AGMs of four Anil Ambani Reliance group firms on September 30 at intervals of 2 hours, the group entities today said the practice has been adopted for different reasons, including a substantial majority of their shareholders being common.
Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Communications and Reliance Capital in similarly-worded BSE filings said they are in full compliance with the applicable provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 in relation to convening the Annual General Meeting (AGM).
"A substantial majority of our large family of Shareholders are common in all 4 our listed Group Companies. Acceding to the persistent demand of our Shareholders, we adopted the practice of holding AGMs of all our Group listed Companies on the same day, to enable Shareholders to attend all meetings on the same day at the same venue," the companies added.

The companies stated they have been following this practice since last four years.
The clarification was provided by the listed companies in response to the exchange's query seeking clarification with respect to the scheduling of AGMs of group companies on the same day, September 30, 2014 at intervals of 2 hours.
"To ensure that there is sufficient time available for a meaningful deliberation at the AGM and our Shareholders get due opportunity to seek clarifications / hold discussions on any of the matters on Agenda at the AGM, we always keep a sufficient gap of two hours between the AGM of our Company and that of our other Group Company," the filings said.

The firms said the time gap of 2 hours has been fixed considering past experience, number of items to be placed in meetings, e-voting facility and demand of hareholders.

"Our past experience of duration of our earlier AGMs - It has been observed in our past several AGMs that generally our AGM lasts for about 60 to 90 minutes. Accordingly the Company keeps sufficient time of 2 hours for the AGM proceedings," the filings said.
The companies said they have between 3 to 9 items for consideration of shareholders in the ensuing AGMs.
"Our shareholders themselves present at our AGMs in the past several years have consistently appreciated the fact that our AGMs are kept on a single day, which is far more convenient for them, instead of their having to travel repeatedly on different days," the filings of the group firms said.