ZEE Learn is unable to answer its investors’ questions. Its board and management have not provided the requisite leadership resulting in poor capital allocation decisions, including a botched-up acquisition. Plagued with high debt and weakening cash flows, the problems are exacerbated by pledged promoter equity. The board needs to find a solution for the entire business and the company itself. For this, investors may need to wrestle the company out of the promoters’ control a

This article has been updated. After the publication of this article, MCA has issued a clarification dated 13 April 2020. This version incorporates the clarifications. Having given relaxations on EGMs, MCA has taken a pause: it has not been extended to AGMs. MCA may be waiting to obtain feedback after a round of EGMs. Or it could be expecting that when the AGM season1 - June to September, commences, the pandemic will be behind us. Irrespective of its the assessment, MCA ne

With social distancing and lockdowns becoming the norm, shareholder meetings will have to take on a virtual form. Although companies, investors, and regulators may not all be prepared, this will be the new normal. While the system of having shareholder meetings finds this new equilibrium, AGMs will be delayed as will the expectation of a dividend payout. The outbreak of COVID-19, which was declared a pandemic on March 11 by the World Health Organization (WHO), has sent shock

Given that many companies are going to scramble to find money just to survive, dividends and buy-backs should be the last thing on a board’s agenda. Only after business has stabilized and there is visibility ahead, should companies look at paying their shareholders. The Finance Minister while presenting FY20-21 Union Budget proposed to remove dividend distribution tax on companies: henceforth the tax is to be collected from recipients, at the applicable rate, which could be a