Mr. Damien Fernando, a non-executive director on the board of the Hatton National Bank, resigned a few days ago in a move that well informed sources said was intended to create a vacancy to bring Mr. Dinesh Weerakkody on the board.
Earlier, Harry Jayawardena controlled/ influenced companies with a substantial stake in HNB first requisitioned and then abandoned an Extraordinary General Meeting of the bank to bring Weerakkody on the board.
Analysts believe that the requisitioning of the EGM was abandoned out of a realization that that the special resolution may not succeed as reported earlier in this newspaper.
There was an attempt a few days ago to outvote Mr. Amal Cabraal, a former head of Unilever in Sri Lanka, who was up for re-election at the HNB Annual General Meeting. But this attempt also failed with no poll being taken as it was not called for in time.
Soon thereafter Mr. Damien Fernando tendered his resignation and the vacancy is expected to be filled by Weerakkody who was once chairman of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon.
Fernando who was appointed to the HNB board in 2012 was an executive director in the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation when it was under Harry J control and also served on the boards of Distilleries, Pelwatte Sugar (under Harry J at the time), Lanka Hospitals Corporation, Melstacorp, Lanka Bell, National Asset Management and Continental Insurance (all Harry J companies) and several others.
The serving chairman of HNB is Mr. Rienzie Arseculeratne, PC.
The EPF with 9.78 percent of the voting shares is the top shareholder of HNB followed by the Life Fund of the Insurance Corporation with 9.68%. Other government controlled entities among the top 20 shareholders are the Insurance Corp. General Fund (4.96%) and NSB (2.3%).
Harry J companies in the Top 20 are Milford Exports (7.9%), Stassen Exports (6.88%) and Distilleries (3.08%) but 5.74% of their shares which enjoy dividend rights do not have voting rights as the related parties own in excess of 10% of the shares disallowed by the Banking Act. These companies together own 17.9% of HNB.
Further developments in HNB are awaited with interest.
Earlier, Harry Jayawardena controlled/ influenced companies with a substantial stake in HNB first requisitioned and then abandoned an Extraordinary General Meeting of the bank to bring Weerakkody on the board.
Analysts believe that the requisitioning of the EGM was abandoned out of a realization that that the special resolution may not succeed as reported earlier in this newspaper.
There was an attempt a few days ago to outvote Mr. Amal Cabraal, a former head of Unilever in Sri Lanka, who was up for re-election at the HNB Annual General Meeting. But this attempt also failed with no poll being taken as it was not called for in time.
Soon thereafter Mr. Damien Fernando tendered his resignation and the vacancy is expected to be filled by Weerakkody who was once chairman of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon.
Fernando who was appointed to the HNB board in 2012 was an executive director in the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation when it was under Harry J control and also served on the boards of Distilleries, Pelwatte Sugar (under Harry J at the time), Lanka Hospitals Corporation, Melstacorp, Lanka Bell, National Asset Management and Continental Insurance (all Harry J companies) and several others.
The serving chairman of HNB is Mr. Rienzie Arseculeratne, PC.
The EPF with 9.78 percent of the voting shares is the top shareholder of HNB followed by the Life Fund of the Insurance Corporation with 9.68%. Other government controlled entities among the top 20 shareholders are the Insurance Corp. General Fund (4.96%) and NSB (2.3%).
Harry J companies in the Top 20 are Milford Exports (7.9%), Stassen Exports (6.88%) and Distilleries (3.08%) but 5.74% of their shares which enjoy dividend rights do not have voting rights as the related parties own in excess of 10% of the shares disallowed by the Banking Act. These companies together own 17.9% of HNB.
Further developments in HNB are awaited with interest.
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