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Lakshmi Vilas Bank directors lacked accountability: Advisory firm – Economic Times

KOLKATA: Before shareholders of Lakshmi Vilas Bank threw out seven out of 10 directors, the Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) said that these directors lacked accountability even as the bank’s financial parameters deteriorated over the last couple of years.

“Many of these directors have rotated on-and-off. We believe that a part of the accountability for the bank’s deteriorating performance over the last few years rests with its slate of non-independent directors,” IiAS said in its voting advisory to shareholders.

At the bank’s annual general meeting held Friday, shareholders voted against the appointment of chief executive officer S Sundar and reappointment of other six directors including N Saiprasad and KR Pradeep who are promoters.

“RBI needs to step in to help the bank to take steps towards recovery,” the report said.

Sundar, aged 65, took over as an interim CEO from January 1, following Parthasarathi Mukherjee’s resignation from the top position on August 31, last year. Sundar was chief financial officer in the bank between April 2018 and December 31, 2019.

Other non-executive directors who are shown the door are Gorinka Jaganmohan Rao, Raghuraj Gujjar, BK Manjunath and YN Lakshminarayana.

The bank’s Tier I CRAR is a negative 0.88% and gross NPAs are a quarter of the bank’s advances. Auditors have already expressed an uncertainty related to the going concern.

The development would put the bank’s proposed merger with the Clix Group in a limbo. Both the entities failed to complete the due diligence within an extended deadline but they maintained that the delay was because of Covid-related disruptions and the process is still on.

LVB has signed a preliminary, non-binding letter of intent (LoI) with Clix Capital Services Private Ltd and Clix Finance India Private Ltd June 15 in relation to the proposed merger.