
Religare company secretary’s action on Gaekwad offer draws independent directors’ ire
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Two independent directors on the Religare Enterprises Ltd board have criticized the company's haste in publicizing a late bid from Danny Gaekwad, even as chairperson Rashmi Saluja moved the High Court to block a shareholder vote which would decide her continuance at the conglomerate's helm.
Praveen Tripathi and Malay Sinha on 26 January wrote to Religare’s company secretary Vinay Gupta about the Gaekwad proposal, which was returned by the market regulator on Tuesday. While Tripathi said it was "injudicious" on Gupta's part to forward letters without verifying the sender's identity, Sinha said Gupta acted despite an instruction to seek approval from a committee of independent directors on matters related to the open offer.
Mint has seen copies of both emails. Over Friday and Sunday, Gaekwad proposed to make a competing offer worth ₹5,000 crore, countering the Burmans' ongoing offer for an additional 26% stake.
Religare forwarded both letters to stock exchanges. Emails sent to Sinha, Tripathi and Religare did not elicit any response.
While criticizing Gupta’s actions, Sinha said in his email, “In this background I completely agree with PK Tripathi that for the CoID (committee of independent directors) to remain, appear and function in an unbiased and fair manner, as mandated by the regulators, this letter from the acquirers (four Burman family associates) should also be released to the stock exchanges." The two directors, part of Religare's seven-member board, said the company secretary should have also forwarded a letter that Burmans sent in response to the Gaekwad offer. Religare’s seven-member board has five independent directors -- Sinha, Tripathi, Ahmed, Ranjan Dwivedi and Preeti
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