Adityan, allies on TMB board

Ramachandra Adityan, who spearheaded the Nadar Mahajana Sangha Bank Share Investors Forum, and his supporters are now on the board of Tamilnad Mercantile Bank.

The crucial and controversial 33 per cent voting rights have clearly made all the difference at the 81st annual general meeting of the bank.

Besides Adityan, the new incumbents in the TMB boardroom include three other members from his family - R Kadiresan Adityan, R Kannan Adityan and Prem Vetty.

The remaining six directors elected are M G M Maran, T R Chandrasekaran, A Narayanan, A Rajagopolan and V Bhaskaran.

About 131,000 votes were in favour of electing the ten new directors.

It is said that the seven investors holding the 33 per cent stake who were apparently given the power of attorney to cast their votes by the original holders of the controversial shares played a major role in the election of the ten new directors.

Karikol Raj, general secretary, Nadar Mahajana Sangam said that if the seven investors were not allowed to cast their votes through the said power of attorney the results of the ten directors would be different.

He said " We expect to fight this issue on the elected the ten new directors in the high court."

R Natarajan, chairman, TMB, said "S Ramalingam, retired judge of High Court who had preceded over the election of directors is expected to formally submit the results of the ten new directors to the Company Law Board before 18 March."

"With stable board of directors now being chosen the bank expects to increase its net profits to Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) and a total business of Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in 2005. We expect to focus on treasury operations to enhance the non-interest income of the bank, in last one year we transacted about Rs 4,200 crore (Rs 42 billion) and made a profit Rs 10 crore (Rs 10 million)," he added.