Wake up, India Inc

Companies should learn to deal with shareholder activism

It’s been a busy season for shareholder activism in India Inc. While the Zee-Invesco slugfest has been in the spotlight, there have been many other side actors too of equal significance. In the last couple of months, the boards of as many as six companies got a taste of such activism in varying degrees — while Zee has refused to hold an extraordinary general meeting to consider replacement of the promoter and certain directors as demanded by Invesco, which holds an 18 per cent stake, YES Bank, which owns almost 25 per cent in Dish TV, has asked for removing