BharatPe row gets murkier as Ashneer Grover asks for financials, Suhail Sameer denies access

If the two
had a spat on LinkedIn earlier this week over payments issues for some BharatPe employees, they had a more heated argument over BharatPe’s quarterly financials not being disclosed to Grover.

Grover,
who resigned from BharatPe amid controversies on March 1 at midnight, asked for BharatPe’s management information system (MIS) which details the company’s business performance, but was rejected by Sameer, who claimed Grover was not defined as an investor in the company. Grover owns about 8.5% of the company.

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Ashneer Grover writes to BharatPe demanding action against CEO Suhail Sameer and Rajnish Kumar

“Investor is a defined term as per SHA (shareholders agreement). I am asking our general counsel (marked on the email) to send you the definition as per your reference…,” Sameer told Grover in an email on March 31. Sameer added in the mail trail that even investors like Beenext, Sequoia and others are defined terms in the company’s article of association (AoA).

“And you do not fall within the definition of any of the above,” Sameer added, noting that even when Grover was MD, the company’s financials weren’t discussed with everyone.

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Grover responded to him saying Sameer was wrong and that he openly shared company financials with the ‘whole market– including those who are sitting on the cap table now.’

“So don’t tell me what used to happen under me. I don’t need to hide behind anyone,” Grover said.

“Leave it–you’ll need numbers in the first place to share. Your lawyers can read the documents and tell you what can’t be done. You’ll need to read the market and figure what needs to be done,” Grover added in his email response to Sameer over the fight on not receiving company financials.

On April 7, Grover had tweeted, “So I just heard @bharatpeindia closed its first quarter of ‘degrowth’ and ‘maximum cash burn’ under able (sic) leadership of Rajnish Kumar and Suhail Sameer. ‘Chaabi chheenna and hatti chalana do alag alag skills hai !’ Ab Nani yaad aayegi – markets are the ultimate test & truth.”