Bombay HC temporarily bars Invesco from calling Zee EGM
- The ruling can be challenged in a higher court
- Invesco, unhappy with the way Zee is run, wants to remove Punit Goenka as its CEO, overhaul the board and get a new owner
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday temporarily restrained Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited's biggest shareholder Invesco from calling an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) -- a crucial win for Zee and its founder Subhash Chandra. The ruling can be challenged in a higher court.
Invesco, unhappy with the way Zee is run, wants to remove Punit Goenka as its CEO, overhaul the board and get a new owner. Zee’s shares advanced 4.6% on BSE after the verdict.
A single bench of the high court presided over by Justice G S Patel had on Thursday asked the media company if it was willing to hold such a meeting. On Friday, senior counsel Gopal Subramanium, who appeared for ZEEL, informed the court that the company's board of directors could not grant permission for something that could turn out to be “illegal". Subramanium said that "clouds of concern had appeared on the horizon", following the court's query posed in the previous hearing and the ZEEL board had decided against holding an EGM.
Earlier today, Zee said its board meeting to consider and approve the firm's financial results for the second quarter has been cancelled due to lack of quorum. Zee said in its exchange filing that the next date of the meeting would be informed with a fresh notice.
Invesco Developing Markets Fund and OFI Global China Fund, the largest investors of ZEEL, had sent a requisition to the company on September 11 to call for an EGM for the removal of MD and CEO Punit Goenka and two other non-independent and non-executive directors from the company's board. It had also sought the induction of six new independent directors. ZEEL, however, moved the high court on October 2, seeking that the court declare the requisition notice sent by Invesco as illegal and invalid.
Invesco had publicly lashed out at Zee and objected to some terms of its proposed merger with Sony, weeks after the deal announcement.
Earlier this year, Invesco had tried to forge a deal between companies owned by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries and Zee.
With agency inputs
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First Published:26 Oct 2021, 03:14 PM IST
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