Institutional shareholders managed to swing the proposal to delist ICICI Securities Ltd. and merge it with its parent, even as retail investors held out against it.
According to the results of the shareholder vote released on Thursday, 71.89% of the shareholder votes were cast in favour of the proposal to merge ICICI Securities with ICICI Bank Ltd. after a delisting process. The terms of the arrangement suggest that shareholders of ICICI Securities will get 67 shares of ICICI Bank against every 100 shares held.
Among the public institutional shareholders, 83.8% voted in favour of the proposal, while among the public non-institutional shareholders, only 32% votes were in favour. However, the large institutional holdings in ICICI Securities led to the proposal being cleared.
Foreign and domestic institutional investors own 16.68% in the broking firm. Non-institutional public shareholders held 8.55% in the company as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to stock exchange data.
The Securities and Exchanges Board of India requires that in cases of delisting and merger of a subsidiary with its holding company, votes in favour by shareholders of a delisted firm must be at least two times higher than those voting against it. More shareholders in the listed holding company must have voted in favour than the votes against the proposal.
The shareholders vote for delisting of ICICI Securities saw a lot of opposition from retail shareholders, with some coming out on social media complaining about the way ICICI Bank was canvassing them to vote. According to some shareholders, bank employees incessantly called them, goading them to vote in favour of the proposal.
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