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Bharat’s plan to oust Scangroup board fails
Former Scangroup CEO Bharat Thakrar.
Minority shareholders of marketing services firm WPP Scangroup failed in their quest to oust the company’s board of directors and install themselves after top shareholder WPP Plc voted against the proposed resolutions at the Monday annual general meeting.
The company’s founder and former chief executive, Bharat Thakrar, had rallied fellow minority investors to shake up the company’s board, citing years of underperformance that he said had destroyed shareholder value.
The investors proposed to remove Richard Omwela, Akua Brayie Owusu-Nartey, Beverley Spencer-Obatoyinbo, Peter Kimurwa, Patricia Kiwanuka, Kagiso Musi, Nick Douglas, Manuel Segimon and Tebogo Skwambane as directors of the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm.
They proposed replacing them with Mr Thakrar, Andrew John Laird White, Carl Adam Ogola, Kunal Kamlesh Bid, and Rishab Bharat Thakrar.
They also trained their sights on appointing a new chairman and CEO at the board’s first meeting, highlighting their urgency in reshaping the company.
All of their proposals failed as the British multinational voted its controlling shares to maintain the status quo, with Mr Thakrar claiming the confrontation was aimed at expressing dissatisfaction with the way the company has been managed.
The resolutions were defeated after WPP Plc voted its 243.1 million shares, equivalent to a 56.26 percent stake, against the proposals. The multinational’s stake also led to the successful adoption of standard resolutions such as approval of the directors’ remuneration report.
The Thakrar group’s 63.5 million shares were inadequate to pass their proposed resolutions. They also failed in their bid to block the normal agenda items.
Mr Thakrar has a 10.48 percent stake (45.3 million shares) in Scangroup, while Mr Ogola has a 1.46 percent interest (6.3 million shares) in the firm according to the latest annual report.
Mr Bid has a 0.58 percent ownership (2.52 million shares) in the company. Other retail investors also supported Mr Thakrar's agenda.
Mr Thakrar was suspended as Scangroup's chief executive alongside former chief financial officer Satyabrata Das on February 18, 2021, for alleged and unspecified gross misconduct.
Mr Thakrar later resigned on March 23, 2021, and was followed by Mr Das, who quit on May 10, 2021. A probe commissioned by Scangroup later found no incriminating evidence against the duo.
The marketing services firm has meanwhile continued to report losses on the back of increased competition, loss of key customers and the disruption of the industry by artificial intelligence among other technologies.
The company, which posted a net loss of Sh713.6 million in the year ended December 2025, had recorded net profits as high as Sh867.3 million in the year to December 2013.
Mr Thakrar had for long been the face of Scangroup, which he took public on August 29, 2006, in an initial public offering (IPO) that raised Sh94 million.
He was the top shareholder at the time with 28.53 percent and his holdings were at one time valued at more than Sh1 billion. He sold his shares over the years, contributing to his ownership dropping to the current levels that place the market value of his holdings at Sh96.5 million.
Also Read: Bharat Thakrar resigns as Scangroup CEO
WPP Plc, on the other hand, raised its stake in the company to a controlling 56.26 percent through a mix of share purchases and folding some of its subsidiaries into Scangroup.
