Chanda Kochhar gets majority votes to be reappointed on board of ICICI Securities

Shareholders of ICICI Securities have voted in favour of reappointing Chanda Kochhar as the company's Chairperson, as per a regulatory filing. ICICI Securities' promoter (ICICI Bank) and promoter group have voted 100 per cent in favour of Kochhar's reappointment.

The ICICI Bank MD and CEO is on an absence of leave from office, pending the probe against her on the allegations of favouring family members in lieu of providing loans to a corporate house.

The shareholders of ICICI Securities at its 23rd annual general meeting held yesterday passed the resolution to re-appoint Kochhar as the chairperson of the ICICI Bank subsidiary.

She received nearly 97.7 per cent of the votes in favour of her reappointment, while nearly 2.32 per cent votes were cast against her, ICICI Securities said in a late night filing on Thursday.

"In the absence of Chanda Kochhar, Chairperson, Vinod Kumar Dhall was designated by the board of directors of the company as the chairman of the meeting," it said in the filing.

She expressed her inability to attend the meeting, ICICI Securities said.

Earlier this month, Kochhar had offered herself to be reappointed on the board of ICICI Securities. She is the chairperson of the bank's broking arm.

She is facing allegations of impropriety in ICICI Bank by extending loans to some companies and enjoying reciprocal benefits.

It has been alleged that her family members, including her husband Deepak Kochhar, got financial favours from the borrowers against the loans sanctioned by the bank

Sebi has already served a notice on Kochhar on dealings of the bank with Videocon Group and Nupower-a firm controlled by her husband. An independent probe has also been launched by ICICI Bank board to look into the matter.

There are eight members on the board of ICICI Securities of which four are independent directors, two are non-executive non-independent directors who are nominated from ICICI Bank and two are whole-time directors.

Two members --managing director & CEO Shilpa Kumar and executive director Ajay Saraf are the whole-time directors on the board of ICICI Securities.

ICICI Securities, headquartered in Mumbai, offers financial services including brokerage, financial product distribution and investment banking, catering to both retail and institutional clients.

During 2017-18, the company was listed on the stock exchanges through the initial public offer (IPO). The IPO was completed through an offer-for-sale by holding company ICICI Bank.

Stock of ICICI Securities was trading 1.31 per cent up at Rs 331.50 on BSE in the afternoon.