The Burman family on Thursday said that they have purchased all shares in Religare transparently without any market manipulation. This comes after independent directors of Religare have reportedly made allegations of fraud and breaches against the Burmans.

The Burman Family is the single largest shareholder in Religare Enterprises. The family had increased its stake to 21.5 per cent in the company by August and had bought another 5.27 per cent stake in September triggering a mandatory open offer to buy an additional 26 per cent stake from the public.

In an official statement, the Burman family said,” We are surprised and disappointed at these allegations. These allegations are false, frivolous and defamatory.”

“We have purchased all our shareholdings in REL through transparent market purchases and preferential allotments in prior fund-raising exercises approved by the Board of REL. There is no market manipulation whatsoever,” the statement added. 

The Burmans also expressed concerns that some of these statements are being orchestrated “as falsehoods by interested persons at REL.” 

“We would urge the independent directors to review the issues with proper facts and records in perspective as per well-established procedures that Boards of listed companies ought to follow. In fact, the Board issued a press release dated September 25, 2023, welcoming our investment in REL and it now surprises us that such baseless aspersions are being cast by certain individuals,” the Burman Family’s statement added . 

The family investment office of the Burmans added that it will move towards closing the transaction “expeditiously” working with all the regulators. “Given our credentials, an overwhelming majority of the institutional investors / public shareholders are supportive of the proposed transaction and we remain confident that under our guidance, REL’s performance would see significant uptrends,” the statement added 

The Burman Family also said that they believe some of these allegations are being made after attention was drawn “to certain share trades by a certain senior executive at REL immediately prior to the launch of our open offer.

“The shareholders had also sought some improved governance in REL primarily relating to limiting the high compensation of a specific individual which is in excess of about ₹150 crore, an amount which is not in line with compensation norms by any reasonable parameters,” the Burmans’ statement added.

In response, REL in a statement said, the allegation that the Executive Chairperson draws a remuneration of more than ₹150 crore per annum is “completely false and erroneous.” “As per the Annual Report for FY22-23 of REL, the remuneration for the Exec Chairperson was ₹8.12 crore. Even after including the perquisites value of the ESOPs, it reached a figure of ₹42.06 crore,” the company added. It also stated that as per standard exercising of listed stock options by employees require requisite approvals which spans across several months before the actual sale. “In the said allegation, the entire process started months before the eventual sale of ESOPS on September 21, 2023. The process was undertaken before the said meeting on September 20, 2022,” the REL statement added.

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