YES Bank moves Allahabad High Court on dispute over Dish TV stake

YES Bank, which has 24.19 per cent stake in Dish TV India, has moved the Allahabad High Court against Uttar Pradesh police’s order that restricted voting rights on Dish TV shares.

The bank’s action follows a Dish TV statement to the stock exchanges that said the company had, on November 6, received a notice issued by the Crime Branch, Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida), in respect of an investigation being conducted by the cops.

“The company has been informed that the Crime Branch has issued a notice under Section 102 of the Cr. P.C, 1973, to YES Bank, restricting YBL from dealing in and/or exercising any rights over 44,53,48,990 equity shares of the company held by YBL till completion of the investigation or till further orders,” the company said. YES Bank did not answer emails or text messages, seeking comments. A Dish TV spokesperson declin­ed to comment.

YES Bank’s shares were frozen by the UP police following a complaint filed by founder of Essel group Sub­hash Chandra against the previous management of the bank over a merger deal brokered by the bank between Videocon D2H and Dish TV.

According to the complaint filed in September last year, YES Bank’s previous management, led by Rana Kapoor, withheld crucial information from the Essel group. This led to huge losses to the Chandra family. The police are investigating the case by seeking in­for­mation from top YES Bank officials. YES Bank had invoked pledged shares of Dish TV in 2019 after the Essel group’s promoter entities defaulted on loans. Between 2016 and 2019, the Essel group paid around Rs 900 crore to YES Bank to service these loans but defaulted after the group’s infrastructure businesses suffered a huge loss. Barring YES Bank, rest of the lenders agreed to a settlement with Chandra, who sold his shares in various Zee group companies to repay debt.

With the Uttar Pradesh police restricting YES Bank from exercising its voting rights, the remaining shareholders will decide the fate of director Ashok Kurien. Kurien’s re-nomination is coming up for voting at the annual general meeting (AGM) of shareholders to be held on November 30. The AGM will be held in the backdrop of a dispute between YES Bank and Dish TV over the restructuring of Dish TV board.

On September 26, YES Bank asked Dish TV to call an EGM of shareholders to appoint its nominees and remove CEO and MD Jawahar Lal Goel and other directors. These directors include Kurien, Rashmi Agarwal, Bhagwan Das Narang and Shankar Agarwal.

Kurien had already quit Zee Entertainment board after a demand from Zee’s largest shareholder, Invesco.

Promoter stake came down to six per cent in the company after YES Bank and other lenders invoked pledged shares of the promoters. Dish TV is also of the opinion that the nominee directors of YES Bank require clearance from other lenders as well as security clearance from the ministry of information and broadcasting.

YES Bank had sought to appoint its nominees in the AGM scheduled for September 27 that was postponed to November 30.

YES Bank had earlier said that Dish TV’s present board is acting at the behest of the promoters, who hold only 6 per cent in the company, and approved a Rs 1,000-crore rights issue despite its objections.

YES Bank had earlier said Indian lenders have 45 per cent stake in the company and are taking steps to protect the rights of all shareholders.

The bank has also approa­ched the Sebi after the company did not take any action on its (the bank’s) communication, which sought to appoint its nominees and asked the company not to go ahead with its Rs 1,000-crore rights issue.

In its communication to Dish TV, which was later filed with the stock exchanges, YES Bank said the board is acting in haste and taking steps to dilute its stake. Hence, it demanded to reconstitute the board. Business Standard