New Delhi– Jammu & Kashmir Bank’s proposal to raise capital by issuing shares to staff members under the employee stock option plan was rejected by the shareholders in the annual general meeting held in late August.
In a regulatory filing on Thursday, the bank released the minutes of the 84th annual general meeting (AGM) held on August 24, 2022.
The bank had proposed to issue 2 crore shares of face value of Re 1 each under J&K Bank under the J&K Bank Employee Stock Option Scheme 2022 (JKB ESOS 2022) and had sought shareholders’ approval at the AGM last month.
The proposal sent as special resolution garnered only 0.92 per cent votes from shareholders who participated in the voting, showed the minutes of the meeting. Of the total 6,65,883,603 cast, only 6,062,264 were in favour of the proposal.
Shareholders also rejected the proposal to re-appoint Dr Mohmad Ishaq Wani, to retire by rotation, as the director of the bank.
Only 1.71 per cent (11,404,451 votes) of the shareholders were in favour of Wani’s re-appointment, according to the minutes of the meeting of the AGM. With 3,898 shareholders abstaining, 6,54,475,254 votes were cast against Wani’s re appointment.
However, the proposal to raise tier I equity capital of Rs 500 crore by issuing shares in one or more tranches through a rights issue, preferential allotment, private placement of a qualified institutional placement (QIP) was passed with requisite majority, the bank said.
As many as 99.99 per cent votes were cast in favour of the resolution.
Shareholders also approved the proposal to raise tier II capital up to Rs 1,500 crore by issuing Basel III compliant bonds on a private placement basis during 2022-23.
In FY2021-22, the state-owned lender had raised about Rs 1,103.5 crore through various modes. It raised Rs 650 crore through a mix of — Rs 500 crore by way of government captial infusion and Rs 150 crore through employee stock option scheme.
Rs 360 crore was infused as tier II capital and rest of Rs 93.50 crore as equity capital via QIP.
In the AGM, the bank also got approval from members to appoint Rajesh Kumar Chhibber as a non-executive non-independent director (liable to retire by rotation). He was appointed as additional director from December 30th 2021 till the last AGM.
The meeting chaired by MD&CEO Baldev Prakash was attended by eight other board of directors including Chhibber and government nominee Vivek Bharadwaj.
Bank surpassed the milestone of Rs 500 crore annual profit for FY2021-22, registering an annual increase of 16 per cent, Prakash told the shareholders.
He said J&K Bank continues to be a the major financial player in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and holds a leading market share of over 64 per cent and 58 per cent respectively of banking business at end March 2022.
“Your bank has formulated one of the most comprehensive, broad-based and practicable strategy to achieve the goal of Rs 2.22 lakh crore business for FY2022-23,” Prakash said in the AGM, as reported by the bank in the minutes of the meeting.
In FY22, bank’s business grew by 5.84 per cent to Rs 1.85 lakh crore.
Stock of J&K Bank closed at Rs 33.25 apiece on BSE, up by 0.45 per cent from the previous close. (PTI)