Brushing aside the opposition from Anil Nanda, the Escorts board on Wednesday decided to go ahead with mortgaging of shares of Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre to raise Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).
Anil, who had earlier described the move as "illegal and wholly improper", did not attend the meeting, a spokesperson of Escorts told PTI after the meeting.
When contacted, Anil, who has been at loggerheads with his elder brother and Escorts chairman Rajan Nanda on the issue, did not appear to have given up; he told PTI, "One will have to think about further steps..."
"I thought I did the appropriate thing by sending a letter of dissent... I did take a position on EHIRC six months ago also," he said.
The spokesperson said Anil's letter was taken on record by the board before it finally went ahead to ratify the decision of the borrowing committee.
The committee had approved the proposal for raising resources by pledging assets and shares to the Life Insurance Corporation of India.
Anil had made the protest in a letter to the company secretary, saying pledging shares would go against an earlier decision to register EHIRC as a non-profit charitable company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956.
"In the above circumstances, the present proposal to pledge these shares for raising a Rs 100 crore term loan is not only against our commitment to preserve the public charitable status of EHIRC but is also wholly improper and illegal...I cannot agree to this position at all," he had said in the letter.
Escorts Ltd owns 80 per cent stake in EHIRC while 10 per cent is held by Rajan Nanda and the remaining 10 per cent by heart surgeon Naresh Trehan.
© 2026