Members of the Nadar community, which had until recently rejected all moves to Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) going public, seem to have softened their stand now.
In a hurriedly convened meeting ahead of the press meet called to declare TMB’s financial results for fiscal 2015-16, the Nadar Mahajana Sangam appealed to its members “not to sell their stake to outsiders.”
Speaking to
“Our appeal to every member is to retain their stake. However, if anyone chooses to offload his/her holding either partly or fully, they should consider giving it back within the community and not to outsiders.
“The community has, after great struggle, managed to retain its hold and we would prefer to remain this way, although we know that we cannot stop the bank from going to the market. The RBI is at it. All that we ask our members at this juncture is “not (to) sell their stake to outsiders,” Karikolraj said. To sensitise the community, the Sangam members plan to go on a whirlwind tour of various cities across the State, organising meetings and appealing to members to “keep outsiders off”.
“TMB is a gold mine, built by and for the community,” he asserted proudly, before stating that there were at least over 100 Nadars having an annual turnover of ₹500 crore. “We can approach them to pump in more funds into the bank. We can pool resources from within,” he reiterated. The bank’s share, which was quoting at around ₹8,250/share in 1998, peaked at over ₹1 lakh/share in 2016. With the issue of bonus shares, the rate per share would automatically drop.