Sameer Hiremath, 52, has secured the chairmanship of Hikal Ltd. despite opposition from Bharat Forge's chairman and MD Baba Kalyani. The resolution passed narrowly with 52% of votes backing Hiremath's appointment as Chairman and Managing Director, against 48% who opposed. As reported by The Times of India, the voting pattern was decisive with the Hiremath family delivering 44% of votes in favour, while public shareholders added roughly 8% to the total. Conversely, the Kalyani family accounted for 43% of votes against, with public shareholders contributing about 5% on that side.
Proxy advisory firm InGovern had recommended that shareholders vote against the appointment of Sameer Hiremath as Chairman and Managing Director, as well as the remuneration proposed for him, ahead of the company's 38th Annual General Meeting on September 23. According to reports from CNBC TV18, the proxy adviser had opposed the board-backed proposal to appoint Hiremath as Chairman and Managing Director for three years from October 1, 2026, arguing that combining the two roles in a promoter-family executive could reduce the separation between executive management and board oversight. The recommendation comes against the backdrop of weaker financial performance in FY26, with the company swinging to a net loss of ₹49 crore from a net profit of ₹91 crore a year earlier.
With his elevation, Sameer Hiremath will become the sole Hiremath representative on Hikal's board. His father, Jai Hiremath, the outgoing chairman, and his mother, Sugandha Hiremath, a non-executive director, both will step down on October 1, 2026. As reported by The Times of India, this development has upset the apple cart for a dispute that was meant to be cooling, not heating up. A former Supreme Court judge has been mediating the billion-dollar feud between the Hiremaths and Kalyanis over shared assets, including their Hikal shareholdings and parties under mediation typically avoid moves that strain an already fraught relationship further.
According to reports from CNBC TV18, Hikal has experienced weaker financial performance in FY26, with the company swinging to a net loss of ₹49 crore from a net profit of ₹91 crore a year earlier. Revenue declined 8% to ₹1,695 crore, while EBITDA fell 18.5% to ₹268 crore from ₹328 crore in FY25. Hiremath's total remuneration also declined sharply to ₹1.34 crore in FY26 from ₹6.04 crore a year earlier, as reported in the company's annual report. The recommendation marks a fresh proxy-advisory intervention ahead of the AGM, with InGovern having previously raised governance concerns at Hikal amid the dispute between the Hiremath and Kalyani promoter groups.
According to CNBC TV18, InGovern has cited what it described as revenue-recognition irregularities, employee document alteration, the statutory auditor's ADT-4 filing, audit-trail exceptions, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) remediation and unresolved environmental litigation. The proxy adviser said these circumstances warrant stronger independent governance and a more transparent, performance-linked executive remuneration framework before the Chair and MD roles are combined. This recommendation marks a fresh proxy-advisory intervention ahead of the AGM, with InGovern having previously raised governance concerns at Hikal amid the dispute between the Hiremath and Kalyani promoter groups.
