Shareholder activism is here to stay, as many recent instances of pushback at companies like Zee and JSPL have shown. The writing on the wall is clear: If you want to build a public company, investors need to have an equal footing
Shareholder activism is not new to India but over the last four years especially, proxy advisory firms have come to play a significant role in shareholder voting
Illustration: Chaitanya Surpur
Late night on September 13, around 9:15 pm, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the oldest bourse in India, updated a notice. One of the largest media networks in the country, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zee), had announced that a day before, it had received a letter from its institutional shareholders Invesco Developing Markets Fund (formerly Invesco Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund) and OFI Global China Fund LLC—who collectively hold 17.88 percent shares in the company—having requisitioned for calling an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of company shareholders under Section 100(2)(a) under the provisions of Companies Act, 2013, for removal of key directors from the board of the company.