The Tamilnad Mercantile Bank AGM — like all good soap operas…

Venkatachari Jagannathan
20 March 2004

However, once in several years, like the Kumbh Mela or the Mahamagam, one does get to witness an interesting AGM where the high and mighty are brought down to earth by the one-day sultans — in this case, the individual shareholders!

Historically, one such AGM — in the late 1990s — was that conducted by Best & Crompton, in which the shareholders dubbed the company chairman, the UB Group's Vijay Mallya, an "NPA — a non performing asset" and even asked him to resign!

Employee shareholders, with placards and slogans against Mallya, had added color to the drama. The meeting was adjourned, as it was unable to transact any business. The UB group later sold Best & Crompton to an Indonesian concern.

The annual general meeting of the unlisted Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) held on 12 March 2004, was one of those lively shareholder meetings that had all the essential ingredients of a good soap opera. There was comedy and tragedy, leading up to a tension-filled climax and, finally, a happy ending — leaving everyone altogether satisfied with the experience.

The meeting itself set a record of sorts. Being held after a gap of seven years, the AGM considered and passed the accounts of the previous seven years, and also elected ten directors — that is the entire board — all at one go!

The run-up to the AGM
TMB is one of the few unlisted companies in India that has a wide shareholding — around 29,000 in all. Many of these are first-time shareholders, with just one or two shares to their names!