Vedanta-owned Hindustan Zinc – in which the India’s Mines Ministry is a minority shareholder – has been fined ₹542,800, each by the NSE and BSE for not having the requisite number of independent directors on Board. The country’s largest integrated zinc producer has said, the Ministry is yet to give requisite clearances for appointment to the Board.
In a notification to the bourses, Hindustan Zinc said: “It may be noted that the aforementioned non-compliance concerning the composition of the Board of Directors, specifically regarding the number of Independent Directors, is pending with the Ministry of Mines (“MoM”), Government of India. The Company has been diligently following up with MoM, Government of India to ensure compliance with the relevant requirements.”
The company was fined for non-compliance of regulation 17(1) of SEBI Listing Regulations – Composition of Board of Directors relating to shortfall of Independent Directors.
Hindustan Zinc has also clarified that “there will be no significant impact” on financial, operation or other activities of the listed entity, quantifiable in monetary terms to the extent possible.
The Hindustan Zinc board currently comprise, Priya Agarwal Hebbar as Chairperson, Navin Agarwal as Director and Arun Misra as CEO and Whole-time Director.
The Mines Ministries nominee directors being Nirupama Kotru, Dinesh Mahur and Vivek Kumar Bajpai.
The independent directors include Akhilesh Joshi, Kannan Ramamirtham and Pallavi Joshi Bakhru.
