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Our Bureau

Kochi , Sept. 28

THE curtains came down on the Federal Bank AGM on Tuesday, when Mr P.C. Cyriac, Mr K.P. Fabian and Mr C.J. George were declared elected to the board at the end of a long session of voting and counting which extended till 3 a.m. in the morning.

Mr P.C. Cyriac, who was a consensus candidate between Federal Bank and ICICI Bank, won with a majority of 88 lakh votes, while the margin for the others were around 17 lakh votes.

Prof A.M. Salim and Mr P.H. Ravikumar, who are seen as ICICI Bank nominees to the board, were defeated, sources in the bank said.

A resolution to increase the capital base of the bank to Rs 200 crore to facilitate private placement and another to split the post of Chairman into that of a non-executive Chairman and the creation of a new post of Managing Director were also defeated.

Of a total paid-up equity base of 2.21 crore shares, the total valid votes polled was around 88.55 lakh, constituting just a shade less than 40 per cent of the issued shares. A large segment of the votes cast were declared invalid.

Despite ICICI Bank holding 20.45 per cent stake in Federal Bank's equity, the presiding officer at AGM allowed voting rights for only 26 lakh shares (11.76 per cent), which ICICI had bought in 1993 and for which it had sought and obtained voting rights from the Government. The presiding officer demanded similar letters of consent for the remaining part of the shares, which ICICI Bank was unable to provide, sources in the bank said.

The proxies of HDFC were declared invalid because they were not accompanied by the RBI consent letter, which is mandatory for any organisation to acquire more than 5 per cent stake of a bank. HDFC currently holds 6.45 per cent stake in Federal Bank.

The proxies of UTI and Kotak were declared invalid because of the non-availability of the authorised signatory to attend and vote at the meeting. UTI holds 1.45 per cent and Kotak 1.72 per cent stake in Federal Bank, the sources said.

The bank declared a dividend of 70 per cent for the year 2003-04.

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