BlackRock is reported to have raised the alarm over “substantial accounting irregularities” at SpiceJet, reports India news service Mint.
BlackRock has not specified details of the irregularities, but at a shareholder meeting on December 30 voted the investor voted against audit committee member Shiwani Singh, who is the wife of SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh, being appointed as a director and rejected the resolution to adopt financial statements due to “serious qualifications by auditors".
Other investors are reported to have followed BlackRock’s lead and voted against the resolutions.
A spokesperson for SpiceJet told Mint that the investors never sought clarification from the company nor attended the AGM “wherein the company responded to various queries of investors“, adding that auditors did not highlight any financial irregularities and investor’s reasons for voting “are best known to them”.
“There is only one qualification that has been mentioned by the auditors and the same is on account of difference in the opinion between the views of the management and the auditors regarding the manner and timing in which the compensation from the manufacturer of grounded 737 MAX aircraft is to be accounted. These are not financial irregularities and the same has been disclosed by the company in all transparency with full disclosures at all relevant times. In fact, the view of the management on the said qualification was disclosed and filed with BSE on June 30, 2021,” the spokesperson told Mint.