The management of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) is yet to take a stand on the outcome of the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held by some shareholders on Monday.
Though the shareholders of BoR, who had conducted the EGM despite the absence of the top management, communicated their decision to the stock exchanges saying, ?the scheme of amalgamation has been duly passed by the required majority”, BoR officials maintained throughout Tuesday that they would approach stock exchanges only after getting the decision legally validated.
“We have sought legal advice on that aspect and our legal advisers are currently examining that,” BoR managing director & CEO G Padmanabhan said, when asked whether the shareholders vote was valid after the bank’s management distanced itself from the EGM proceedings on Monday. The bank is in touch with the Reserve Bank of India about the developments. A source pointed out that there would be clarity on the issue by Wednesday.
BoR management had summarily called off the scheduled Monday EGM, citing a stay by a Kolkata civil court. But some shareholders continued with the EGM and reported to have voted in favour of the BoR merger with ICICI Bank.
However, Padmanabhan maintained, ?We have not heard anything from them so far. Nothing has been communicated … we are always in touch with the RBI, especially about sensitive developments like this.? He was appointed by RBI as BoR chief to steer the troubled bank.
Meanwhile, ICICI Bank on Tuesday said its shareholders have approved the merger of BoR with itself.
Currently, ICICI Bank has about 2,000 branches while BoR has 463 spread across the country. Post merger, the balancesheet of ICICI Bank would cross Rs 4 lakh crore. BoR has a total business of over Rs 23,000 crore, as against nearly Rs 3,84,000 crore of ICICI Bank.
Last month, ICICI Bank 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.