NEW DELHI: In a major win for Yes Bank, Jawahar Lal Goel, the Chairman of broadcast satellite service provider Dish TV, on Monday, stepped down from the company’s board.
Private lender Yes Bank, which owns nearly 25 per cent share in Dish TV, had been actively seeking for the reconstitution of the Dish TV board and removal of Goel, along with a few other members, citing corporate governance issues.
“Jawahar Lal Goel, the Director, vide his letter dated September 19, 2022, has tendered his resignation from the company’s Board of Directors and committee/s thereof with effect from the close of business hours of September 19, 2022. Consequently, he shall cease to be the Chairman of the Board,” said a regulatory filing by Dish TV.
Shares of Dish TV India hit an upper circuit of 10 per cent at Rs 16.86 on the BSE. Earlier in June 2022, the shareholders in an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) had rejected the proposal for reappointment of Goel as managing director, following which he had to vacate his office.
The reappointment of Anil Kumar as the whole-time director had also failed then. Dish TV is run by Goel, Subhash Chandra’s brother. Eleven promoter group entities held 5.93 per cent of Dish’s equity capital, of which 39.82 per cent stake was pledged as of March 2022. The promoters’ stake in the June ending quarter fell to 4.04 per cent.
While the tussle between Yes Bank and Dish TV promoters is over a year old, the lender’s influence on the board of Dish TV has been strong in recent times. Last month, Dish TV had agreed to add a couple of Yes Bank nominees to its board and on August 30 further considered one more nominee.
Yes Bank, once among India’s top private banks, had acquired a stake in Dish TV after private entities owned by Essel Group promoter Subhash Chandra defaulted on its Rs 5,270-crore loan. The bank, which now itself is in a transition phase, seized the pledged shares and acquired the shares in May last year.
Chandra then filed a police complaint alleging fraud by Yes Bank’s former management led by Rana Kapoor. He said that the Bank forced him to take over Videocon D2H, a rival company, to bail out the promoters of the Videocon group.
In a nutshell: DishTV developments