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The Securities Appellate Tribunal(SAT), on Monday, provided some relief to PNB Housing Finance Limited by allowing the mortgage lender to go ahead with its planned Extraordinary General Meeting(EGM) of shareholders on June 22. In an interim order, the tribunal overturned the market regulator SEBI’s decision to put a hold on calling the EGM until PNB Housing undertakes a valuation of shares from an independent valuer.
The dispute is concerned about a Rs 4,000 crore investment deal PNB Housing had undertaken with a consortium of investors including The Carlyle Group, General Atlantic, Ares SSG and former HDFC Bank CEO Aditya Puri. Following allegations of undervaluation of shares in the deal, SEBI had decided to put on hold the EGM which would vote on the preferential allocation of shares to a Carlyle led group of investors. It had called the notice for EGM a violation of PNB’s Article of Association (AOA).
However, the SAT has now permitted PNB Housing to proceed with the vote on Tuesday, June 22 with some strings attached. The tribunal has instructed the public sector lender in an interim order to keep the results of the vote in a sealed cover until further orders. PNB Housing is required to issue the necessary instructions to the securities depository NSDL to ensure the voting results are not declared publicly.
The final hearing for the matter will take place on July 5.
Earlier in the day, PNB Housing Finance revealed in a regulatory filing that it had moved to the Securities Appellate Tribunal(SAT) challenging SEBI’s decision on the EGM.