PFS shareholders approve appointment of new independent directors

Shareholders of controversy-hit PTC India Financial Services have approved the appointment of PV Bharathi, Seema Bahuguna and Naveen Bhushan Gupta as independent directors of the company, said a company statement . 

The shareholders‘ approval comes after the board of the company had cleared their appointment on 14 November.

Bharathi is former MD & CEO of Corporation Bank and she has been a board member of several banking and financial sector companies. Seema Bahuguna is former Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises, government of India.

Naveen Bhushan Gupta is a chartered accountant and former director (finance) state-run Power Finance Corporation.

The PFS statement said that shareholders also approved the reappointment of Pawan Singh as the MD and CEO of the company.

Further, during the AGM, the shareholders also approved the appointment of Lodha & Co. Chartered Accountants as the statutory auditor of the company.

The shareholder approvals came a crucial time as the company has been in the news for the recent resignation of its independent director citing corporate misgovernance in the company.

In the past one month, several independent directors -- former diplomat Preeti Saran, BSE chairman S. S. Mundra, former secretary in the finance ministry Sushma Nath, former principal chief commissioner of income tax, Mumbai, Devendra Swaroop Saksena and Jayant Purushottam Gokhale, founder of Gokhale & Sathe -- have resigned from the company’s board.