The former Managing Director of Everonn Education Ltd, Mr P. Kishore and his family members, have ceased to be the promoters of the company as they are no longer in control of it.
This follows the decision of the Board of Directors of EEL to accept the request made by Mr Kishore and others who expressed a desire to shed the tag of promoters, as they were no longer in control of the company management. But some of them had held significant stake in the company as on December 31, 2011.
In a communication to the stock exchanges, EEL said its board of directors on March 28 considered the letters received from Mr P Kishore, Mrs Jansi Kishore, Ms Keerthi Kishore, Mr P. K. Padmanabhan, Mrs Jayalakshmi Padmanabhan, Mr Sarvotham, Celebrate India Tourism Ltd, figuring among the promoters and promoter group, requesting to be declassified from promoter/ promoter group category. This was because of their being no longer in control of the management and affairs of the company.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had arrested in mid-2011 Mr P. Kishore, then Managing Director of Chennai-based education service provider EEL, for tax evasion of Rs 116 crore. CBI had then said an Additional Commissioner of Income-Tax (Mr Andasu Ravindar) and a middleman (Mr Uttam Chand Bohra) were also arrested for accepting a bribe of Rs 50 lakh.
Subsequently, Mr Kishore resigned from the post of MD of EEL. According to the NSE Web site, as on December 31, 2011, Mr Kishore held 7.50 per cent stake in the equity capital of the company, which was Rs 21.81 crore. Mrs Jansi Kishore held 50 shares and Ms Keerthi Kishore 60 shares. While Mr Padmanabhan held 5.96 per cent stake, Mrs Jayalakshmi Padmanabhan had 2.39 per cent stake in the company. Mr P. Sarvotham held 0.57 per cent stake and Celebrate India Tourism 0.53 per cent stake.
The Dubai-based Varkey Group had acquired 12 per cent stake in EEL for Rs 138.23 crore through a preferential allotment late last year after the controversy broke out. The company was allotted the shares at Rs 528 per share. Subsequently, it upped its stake to 38.12 per cent following an open offer.
However, the share prices have nearly halved since then and were trading at Rs 255 levels on the NSE today. Another large shareholder, Mr Nikhil Gandhi-controlled SKIL Infrastructure, has 18.33 per cent stake in EEL.