What do you see the outcome of the PNB Housing deal with Carlyle being called off?

There are 2 ways to look at the outcome of the deal. From the perspective of Carlyle and Aditya Puri, this does look like a setback. Puri had championed the deal as advisor to Carlyle plus his company, Salisbury Investments, was to be an investor in PNB Housing. PNB Housing had rallied on hopes that Puri would repeat the HDFC Bank magic again. In short, both Carlyle and Puri virtually underestimated the impact that proxy advisors could make.

However, you can also see this as good news for corporate governance. Institutional investors are playing a larger role in holding managements accountable for decisions and that is thanks to the activism of proxy advisors. We saw that in Zee, Dish, Lupin, Eicher and Finolex. PNB Housing deal was stitched to favour Carlyle at the cost of existing shareholders. Proxy advisors and SEBI have forced companies to be more careful on governance issues.