ICICI Securities shareholders approve merger with ICICI Bank with 72% votes
72% of shareholder votes favored the ICICI Securities-ICICI Bank merger. Concerns raised over alleged coercion of minority shareholders by ICICI Bank, prompting potential regulatory scrutiny on the voting process.
Nearly 72% of were cast in favour of the scheme of arrangement for the merger of with its promoter , according to the filing made to the exchanges ahead of the market opening on Thursday.The voting on the merger scheme was done following a (NCLT) order of February 14, 2024 to consider approving the scheme. The meeting was attended by 161 equity shareholders including authorised representatives.
Out of the total 68,048,133 votes cast by public shareholders, the number of votes in favour of the resolution stood at 48,917,332. The number of votes cast against the merger resolution stood at 19,130,801, which was 28.11%.
ICICI Securities shares fell over 4% to the day's low of Rs 710 on the BSE while ICICI Bank's shares jumped 1.6% to the day's high of Rs 1101.35.
According to the proposed delisting scheme, ICICI Securities shareholders are slated to receive 67 shares of ICICI Bank for every 100 shares held.
Indian stock exchanges had on Wednesday sought clarification from ICICI Securities and promoter ICICI Bank on media reports suggesting that retail shareholders of ICICI Securities were being contacted by the employees of ICICI Bank in connection with the delisting of the former.
ICICI Bank has been under the fire for allegedly coaxing minority shareholders of ICICI Securities (I-Sec) to support the private lender's proposal to delist the broking and investment banking arm. The move cames after some shareholders of ICICI Securities claimed on social media that the bank's executives contacted them directly, asking them to vote in favour of the resolution that proposes to delist the broking subsidiary.
The Economic Times had earlier reported quoting lawyers and market participants that such alleged actions could result in regulatory scrutiny of the voting process.
Source: Stocks-Markets-Economic Times
