The board of directors of Everonn Education has decided to declassify its founder and former managing director, P Kishore, and his family members as promoters and promoter group. The Chennai-based education services company has informed stock exchanges that its board of directors, at a meeting on Wednesday, while approving the declassification of them, accordingly, removed P Kishore, Jansi Kishore, Keerthi Kishore, PK Padmanabhan, Jayalakshmi Padmanabhan, Sarvotham and Celebrate India Tourism from the promoter group category.
?Their names shall be excluded from the promoter category of the company and, in any future correspondence, including documents or filings with the stock exchanges/other statutory authorities, etc., or with the shareholders, their names shall not be included in the promoter/promoter group of the company,” the company said in a regulatory filing.
The filing added that board had received letters from them, requesting to be declassified from the promoter/promoter group category on account of no longer being in control of the management and affairs of the company. The board also approved the appointment of KN Srinivasan, a chartered accountant, as the chief financial officer of the company with effect from April 2.
As of December 31, 2011, Kishore holds a 7.5% stake in the company, Jansi Kishore holds 50 shares and Keerthi Kishore 60 shares. Padmanabhan has a 5.96% stake, Jayalakshmi Padmanabhan 2.39% and P Sarvotham 0.57 %. Celebrate India Tourism holds a 0.53% stake in the company.
Kishore hit the headlines last August when he was arrested by the CBI for allegedly bribing IT officials with R50 lakh for concealing R60 crore of his R116-crore taxable income. The CBI had then arrested an additional I-T commissioner and a middleman in connection with the case. Immediately after the controversy broke out, Dubai-based Varkey Group had acquired a 12% stake in Everonn for R138.23 crore through a preferential allotment late last year . The company was allotted the shares at R528 per share. Subsequently, it upped its stake to 38.12% following an open offer. Another large shareholder, Nikhil Gandhi-promoted SKIL Infrastructure, holds 18.33%.
Consolidating its position in Everonn, the Varkey Group in February appointed Rakesh Sharma and Dino Varkey as directors on the board of the company. While Sharma is CEO of Gems Education, South Asia, Dino is a senior director at Gems. Kishore had to resign from the MD?s post after the new dispensation came into force. After Kishore?s arrest, the company’s non-executive chairman Jamshed J Irani resigned and the company elevated its whole-time director, Susha John, to the CEO post.
