BharatPe boardroom-battle is not over yet. Ashneer Grover, the beleaguered co-founder of the fintech firm has resigned as the managing director and a director on the company’s board, with immediate effect. This comes after two months of high drama where the co-founder of the company locked horns with the board, key investors and other co-founders. “I hereby resign as the Managing Director of BharatPe, effective immediately. I also resign as a Director of the Board,” Grover wrote in an emotional letter to the board. He will continue as the single largest individual shareholder of the company.
Replying to Grover’s resignation BharatPe spokesperson told CNBC-TV18, “Ashneer Grover resigned as Managing Director and Board Director of BharatPe minutes after receiving the agenda for upcoming Board meeting.” The upcoming agenda of the BharatPe board meeting included the submission of internal audit report done by the PWC regarding his (Grover’s) conduct and considering actions based on it, the spokesperson added.
BharatPe board reserves the right to take action based on the report’s findings, the spokesperson mentioned.
BharatPe board will meet on Tuesday, March 1 to discuss the findings of ‘governance review’ conducted by one of the independent consultants PwC. The consultant is expected to table the report during the board meeting.
“From being celebrated as the face of Indian entrepreneurship and an inspiration to the Indian youth to build their own businesses, I am now wasting myself fighting a long, lonely battle against my own investors and management. Unfortunately, in this battle, the management has lost of what is actually at stake – BharatPe,” Grover said in his resignation letter.
Boardroom Battle is On: BharatPe vs Ashneer Grover
Grover earlier wrote a letter to the board of Resilient Innovations, the parent of BharatPe, on February 22, where he alleged that the governance review is rigged. He also accused Rajnish Kumar, the chairman of the board and Bhavik Koladiya, co-founder, of being biased and prejudiced. BharatPe MD alleged that Bhavik Koladiya called him and asked to meet at a location without sharing an agenda. Grover has alleged that Kumar was also with him when the call came
“You have been indulging in spreading false and accusatory information about the senior management of the company to the family members and/or spouses of the said members of the senior management. Such abhorrent conduct on your part is completely unwarranted, and the company takes strong objection to the same,” BharatPe said in response to Grover’s scathing attack and email to to the board of Resilient Innovations, the parent of BharatPe, on February 22.
Kumar, a veteran of the banking industry and former chairman of SBI, rubbished the charges. “Should the board members have any doubts about my impartiality in the matter, I have no intention to continue and can’t tolerate this type of mudslinging by anyone”, Kumar wrote.
The embattled co-founder of BharatPe earlier sought indemnity from any future action against him in his ongoing settlement discussions with the fintech firm, according to reports. He had also asked BharatPe’s investors and the board for Rs 4,000 crore to buyout his 9.5 per cent stake in the company.
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