Public-listed micro lender SKS Microfinance Ltd has informed that its founder and former chief Vikram Akula as also a set of Mutual Benefit Trusts, which currently hold around 12.51 per cent stake, are no longer classified as promoters of the firm, as per a stock market disclosure.
This makes WestBridge Capital the single-largest promoter stakeholder in the firm with around 10.18 per cent holding followed by Kismet Capital, which owns 5.21 per cent in the firm.
Akula was previously the executive chairman of the board of directors of the company and resigned as director on November 23, 2011. He founded SKS Microfinance in 1997, and the company went for an IPO in 2010 that got oversubscribed 14 times.
It was later hit by regulatory clamp in its key market Andhra Pradesh which almost sank its business. The firm has revived its operations in other states and is profitable again.
Akula was reportedly keen on getting back on board of the company with the backing of the five trusts, which together are the single-largest shareholder of the firm.
"Akula does not have any special rights in the company through formal or informal arrangements except such rights that are available to every public shareholder of the company,” the company said in the filing adding that Akula has informed the company through an email dated April 24, 2014, that he is not a promoter of the company.
The company's Mutual Benefit Trusts including SKS Mutual Benefit Trust Medak, Sangareddy, Jogipet, Narayankhed and Sadasivapet were also removed from the promoters' list. They too have neither special rights nor a board nominee and have asked the company to remove their name as promoters as they do not influence the decisions of the company.
The company also informed that Mauritius Unitus Corporation and Sequoia Capital, have divested their entire holding in the past and automatically cease to be classified as promoters of the company.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
