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Shareholders at the 112th Annual General Meeting of Indian Hotels Company raised the question of the company not meeting the compliance norms on the number of board of directors as stated in the listing agreement.
IHCL, the biggest hotel company in the country, has been operating one independent director short of the requisite number to meeting the clause as defined in the corporate governance structure.
With the chairman Cyrus Mistry being non-executive director it is required to have at least 50% of the board strength to be made of independent directors. Presently of the 11 board of directors IHCL has only five independent directors.
However, in his maiden address as the chairman of the company, Mistry said that one person has been identified for the position of the sixth independent director.
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Mistry said, 'There has been quiet of lot of people leaving the board and new members appointed. I think this is a long term issue for us to make sure we have the right members and yes we are in this point in time have somebody in mind and we will soon have someone on the board'.
From a total strength of 14 directors the board of IHCL was reduced to 11 directors last year. No new appointment was made in place of independent director Anu Aga, the former head of engineering giant Thermax. Further Shapoor Mistry was an independent director was later appointed as non executive director.
