India’s prestigious Tata Group invited Hinduja investment in its London, New York and Washington hotels. The Hindujas came in with $ 17.5 million. Then they demanded a seat not only on the board of the Tata subsidiary that ran the hotels but also on the board of the parent company in India. The Hindujas also began accusing Tata executives of incompetence. Participants at board meetings say that Srichand Hinduja frequently spiced his accusations with four-letter words. Finally, the Tatas had had enough. They bought out the Hindujas for a reported $ 25 million. From the Hindujas’ point of view, the termination arrangement was just great: They made perhaps $ 7.5 million in less than two years, plus such goodies as free rooms in Tata hotels.-from a 1987 Forbes article
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The Pissing Tanker
(Disclosure:I own shares in Geodesic)
I attended the Geodesic AGM today .Here is what I heard and saw:
1.The meeting was sparsely attended by shareholders
2.There were around a dozen bouncers at the AGM (see pic ).Either the management wanted to intimidate the shareholders or they feared the proceedings will get rowdy
3.The meeting started with the Chairman welcoming the shareholders.
4.He mentioned that he wanted to be upfront with the shareholders.He mentioned that:
a.Accounts had to be restated owing to write off of receivables etc
b.FCCBs couldn’t be repaid as funds are locked into investment accounts.Liquidating them now will result in not meeting their liabilites
c.He gave the status update of all the court cases
d.He invited the shareholders to join the Board to help the company in its time of crisis.
5.One Nashik based investor got up and said:
a.Chairman had said nothing but lies to shareholders
b.Accounts had to be restated as all the sales were fake
c.FCCBs couldn’t be repaid as the money has been siphoned off by promoters.
d.He mentioned that the promoters were thieves and he had lodged a police complaint against them
6.Prashant Mulekar mentioned that this investor had filed a complaint against the promoters at Nashik.He had told the police that the promoters met him at his hotel in Nashik and told him to buy shares in the company.All these were lies and they were being harassed.
7.At this point,investors sympathetic to the management got up and said the AGM could not be monopolised.They urged that the resolutions were passed quickly.There was one “investor” in particular who was a clear plant of the management.
8.The resolutions were moved and passed with a show of hands.Within 10 minutes,the resolutions were passed.
9.The proceedings took a farcical turn when some “investors” went on stage.One of them expressed her thanks for printing the annual report on glossy paper.Another wanted to go to the Company’s site in Uttarakhand.
10.Then the Company Secretary announced that snacks are ready to be served and there was a headlong rush by the investors to the exits.
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Daylight Robbery in PSU Banks
[gview file=”https://alphaideas.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Press-Release.pdf”]
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Trading is a numbers game
