DBS Group, Southeast Asia's largest bank, has faced down shareholder criticism over the handling of its hostile takeover bid for Singapore rival Overseas Union Bank (OUB) and its recent run of poor publicity.
At an emergency general meeting (EGM) yesterday to approve the issue of new shares, chairman S Dhanabalan parried questions from disgruntled investors on the group's unprecedented apology last week to OUB and fellow Singapore lender United Overseas Bank (UOB).
In full-page announcements, DBS retracted a series of comments prepared by its financial adviser, US investment bank Goldman Sachs, about UOB's friendly S$10 billion (about HK$43.8 billion) offer for OUB.
As part of a 'full and final settlement', DBS also agreed to pay S$1 million apiece to UOB and OUB for the remarks, which were said to question the professionalism of the UOB board.
Mr Dhanabalan, who has said he was angered by the 'unfortunate episode', said DBS was now in talks with Goldman about whether the pair would agree to share the S$2 million liability.
The meeting, which attracted more than 100 investors, lasted about eighty minutes. In the course of the exchanges, Mr Dhanabalan sid that it would be 'an exaggeration to say that management has lost control'.