ICICI Securities Shareholders Allege ICICI Bank Influence In Delisting Process

On Monday, the National Company Law Tribunal heard a lawsuit alleging that ICICI Bank influenced shareholders to support its proposal to delist its broking subsidiary, ICICI Securities, from Indian stock exchanges.

Shareholders claim that ICICI Bank employees, not the employees of ICICI Securities, contacted public shareholders, persuading them to vote in favor. They created a powerpoint presentation as well to influence shareholders, exploiting the lack of technological expertise among many of them.

However, the NCLT bench questioned how the shareholder's advocate is able to distinguish which shareholders are technologically savvy enough to understand the issues at hand.

When the shareholder's advocate, Kaushik Chatterjee, failed to provide a satisfactory answer, the NCLT bench dismissed the argument, stating that shareholders are expected to be intelligent. It emphasised that everyone possesses the capacity to understand such matters, and if someone suffers financial losses in shareholding, it is their responsibility.

The bench is to hear the matter further on July 3.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India, too, is investigating allegations that ICICI Bank employees contacted ICICI Securities shareholders to influence them before the vote on the delisting proposal in March.

As reported previously, SEBI is gathering information on how ICICI Bank canvassed shareholders before the delisting vote. SEBI has also been made a party to a class-action lawsuit filed by minority shareholders and will decide on further actions based on preliminary inquiries. ASG N Venkatraman is representing SEBI.