Hyderabad, October 09: SKS Microfinance Ltd, the country’s largest and only listed Micro Finance Institution (MFI), which recently sacked its CEO and managing director, on Friday received a fresh salvo from the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Following a petition filed by an SKS shareholder Lekha, Justice G Bhavani Prasad passed an interim order directing SKS to retain Gurumani on the company’s board. He also directed SKS’s newly-appointed CEO MR Rao not to take any major policy decisions without prior approval from the board and until further orders.
The shareholder also pointed out that Gurumani was inducted into the company based on his experience as a banker and has been an asset for SKS.
Since Gurumani was unanimously appointed by the general body, the management did not have the power to terminate his services. SKS, however, maintained that Gurumani continues to be on the company’s board.
It must be noted that the SKS’s board of directors on October 4 passed a resolution to terminate Gurumani’s appointment and subsequently withdrew all his powers in the company with immediate effect.
Gurumani was the former retail banking head at Barclays Bank Plc and has been with the SKS as its MD & CEO since December 2008. The SKS did not offer any explanation for Gurumani’s exit, who owns 235,000 SKS shares with a market value of about `300 crore.
SKS raised almost `1,654 crore through an initial public offering a couple of months ago. Soon after its listing in August, the stock has appreciated 29.59 per cent.
–Agencies