Without naming Ashneer Grover, BharatPe, in a statement on May 10, said the company had initiated action to claw back a former founder's restricted shares following a governance review. In a statement, the firm said it would take all steps to enforce its right under the law.

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The changes for a more robust governance framework, as per the statement, were being undertaken due to the planned initial public offering.

In January 2022, the BharatPe board initiated the corporate governance review of the company. The company had appointed Alvarez & Marsal, a global professional services firm notable for its work in turnaround management and performance improvement, and law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co to help the board and management with its governance review. It also appointed PwC to determine wilful misconduct and gross negligence by a former founder.

"After a detailed review of the above report over the last two months, the board of BharatPe has recommended several decisive measures that are being implemented," the statement said.

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These include a new code of conduct for senior management and employees, a new and comprehensive Vendor Procurement Policy, blocking of vendors involved in malpractices, and regular internal audits.

"BharatPe has also terminated the services of several employees in departments who were directly involved with these blocked vendors. If required, the company will be filing criminal cases against some of these employees for the misconduct and act of cheating committed by them against the company," it said.

BharatPe said it had registered the strongest quarter in its history (Q4 FY22) with 4x growth in overall revenue. "On a sequential-quarter basis, the growth has been 30 percent, despite the third wave of COVID-19. Comparing month-on-month, all our metrics have grown at the fastest pace, i.e. merchant total payments value, i.e., TPV (17 percent), consumer TPV (39 percent), loans facilitated in partnership with RBI registered NBFCs (31 percent), and revenue (21 percent) in March 2022 over February 2022."

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"Going forward, we are tracking well to break even on our merchant business and further strengthen our consumer business," the statement said.

(Edited by : Asmita Pant)

First Published:May 10, 2022 1:27 PM IST