EGM on Feb 23 to decide Byju Raveendran’s fate

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Byju’s will hold an extraordinary general meeting on Friday. The meeting has been called by some investors who want to oust the founder CEO Byju Raveendran and his family members over alleged “mismanagement and failures” at what was once India’s hottest tech startup.

But the result of the meeting will not be operational till March 13, when the Karnataka High Court will hear Raveendran’s plea challenging the meeting itself.

The shareholders who have called for the meeting hold over 32% stake in the company, while Byju Raveendran and his family hold about 26%.

The EGM notice seeks the removal of the current board of Think & Learn, the firm that operates Byju’s, comprising Raveendran, his wife and co-founder Divya Gokulnath and his brother Riju Ravindran.

Byju’s was valued at USD 22 billion in 2022 and it is now valued at $200 million in a rights issue.

To mollify investors, Raveendran this week wrote to them saying he is taking more steps to ensure transparency on how the funds will be utilised and committed to restructuring the board including appointing two non-executive directors to the board by mutual consent of the founder and shareholders.

Detailing the reasons for seeking the ouster, the notice listed alleged financial mismanagement, erosion of value due to management’s failure to enforce the company’s legal rights and concealment of material information.

The EGM notice detailing alleged financial mismanagement states that the company management failed to explain about the show cause notice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on alleged contraventions, failure to resolve term-loan with lenders, conflict with BCCI over cricket sponsorship and Raveendran allegedly misleading shareholders about a term-loan. (With inputs from PTI)