Old article:
Given the allegiance, things will be taken care of.
Amounts claimed in today’s alleged fraud don’t seem material.
But need to track the auditor resignation issue, if it will raise it’s ugly head again.
Company conf. call @ 4.30 to clarify today’s news:
Updating the post:
Paraphrasing relevant points from the call below:
Apparently same as old matter from 2016 which was a complaint from estranged wife of CEO.
Overall amount questioned = ~$3 million over 5-7 years majorly with entity (SADAFULI…) towards txns related to rent of property taken for CEO
Sameer Mehta is a consultant known to UPL promoters. He is not a related party or employee. He owns one of the entities in questions, SADAFULI, which had rented the house to UPL for CEOs stay and had some related transactions under different heads such as advance rent by UPL etc. Sameer Mehta is also on the board of entities such as UPL INVESTMENT PRIVATE LIMITED where UPL has stake. All txns at arms length.
Hardeep, the Audit committee chairman, told that he spoke to the reporter of this news a week back and offered him to visit UPL office to review any relevant documents and satisfy himself. But reporter did not avail that offer.
ET article claims that whistle blower complaint is by board member. But Hardeep said that he spoke to all present and past board members from past 7 years and all have refused any hand in this complaint.
Some other points discussed on call include subjective growth projections, debt reduction and reason for so many subsidiaries given their multinational operations and acquisitions over time. Plan to try to simplify structure over time.
Disc: Invested