Proxy company advises vote against Azure CFO on Neuland Board

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

SES) has advised shareholders of listed pharma company Neuland Laboratories to vote against a resolution that seeks to appoint Sugata Sircar as an independent director since he is group chief financial officer of distressed green-energy firm Azure Power Global (APG), which needs Sircar's 100% time commitment to engineer a turnaround and meet statutory compliance deadlines. Sircar was appointed executive director and group CFO of Azure Power Global — the parent unit of an Indian renewable power generating company — from May 1, 2023. Before this, he was appointed independent director in October 2022.

The proposed appointment of Sircar as an independent director comes at a time when Azure Power Global is facing the threat of being delisted by the New York Stock Exchange for its failure to publish its audited annual results for the financial year ending March 2022 within a mandated deadline of July 15. Consequently, the exchange suspended trading of Azure and began the process of delisting its shares. Meanwhile, its auditor SR Batliboi & Co, an Ernst & Young Global affiliate, resigned two days ahead of the mandated deadline to publish the results.

SES points out that given this background, it is clear that «CFO Sircar has not been able to carry out his responsibilities as would be expected from a seasoned CFO. Azure has faced resignation from its auditor, who has made allegations against Azure. While SES would not sit in adjudication whether allegations of auditors of Azure are valid or not, suffice to say that all is not normal and orderly at Azure,» said the SES note.