Resolution To Appoint Samit Ghosh As CEO Of Ujjivan Financial Services Defeated
Proposal to appoint Samit Ghosh as CEO of Ujjivan Financial Services failed to get the required votes.
A special resolution to appoint Samit Ghosh as chief executive officer of Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd. was defeated as it didn’t get the requisite share of votes. Ghosh, founder of Ujjivan, is currently non-executive chairman.
According to details available on the stock exchange, the proposal for appointment Ghosh only received 70.5% votes in favour. Since this was a special resolution, it needs 75% votes in favour to be passed.
- 75% of votes from the public non-institutional category were against the resolution.
- 13.87% of votes from the public institution category were also against the resolution.
A special resolution to reappoint Abhijit Sen as independent director for a period of five years was also defeated with 30% shareholders rejecting the proposal.
The major shareholders of Ujjivan Financial Services included Aberdeen Standard Investments, NewQuest Asia Investments, International Finance Corporation, among others. The public non-institutional investor category includes high net worth investors.
Ghosh is the founder of Ujjivan Financial Services, which started operations as a non-bank microfinance lender in 2005. In 2017, it launched Ujjivan Small Finance Bank after getting a licence from the RBI. Subsequently, the lending business was transferred to the bank and Ujjivan Financial Services is now a holding company.
“I continue to be chairman of the holding company. After Ittira Davis moved from Ujjivan Financial Services to Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, it was proposed that I take on MD & CEO position,” Ghosh told BloombergQuint. “Some shareholders have objected to this. We’ll look for a permanent CEO.”
Davis had resigned as MD & CEO of Ujjivan Financial Services in March and took over as part time chairman of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank. After Davis’ exit, the board had backed Ghosh’s appointment as MD & CEO of the holding company.
Sen will complete his term which ends in September, Ghosh said.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2020, Ujjivan Financial reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 490.73 crore compared to a profit of Rs 74.97 crore a year ago. Expenses during the quarter rose because of higher impairment costs of Rs 844.9 crore compared to Rs 32.6 crore a year ago.