BENGALURU (Reuters) – The California State Teachers’ Retirement Fund (CalSTRS) has decided to vote against the appointment of Saudi Aramco (SE:)’s chairman as an independent director to the board of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, BloombergQuint reported.

According to its last disclosure, the U.S. pension funds held approximately 5.3 million shares in Reliance Industries as of June 30, 2020.

BloombergQuint reported Friday that CalSTRS’ vote was based on recommendations from Glass Lewis (a U.S. proxy research firm).

Reliance is owned by billionaire Ambani and appointed Yasir al-Rumayyan, Aramco, as an independent director. This was in order to formalize a deal with Saudi Arabian firm, which would see it sell 20% of its oil-to–chemicals division.

Al-Rumayyan was appointed independent director by the shareholders for three-years. The voting will close on October 19.

Glass Lewis provides voting suggestions to over 1,200 investors around the globe. It had suggested voting against Al-Rumayyan, “based upon the director’s independence” from RIL.

Reliance, CalSTRS, and Glass Lewis didn’t immediately reply to Reuters inquiries for comments.

Indian conglomerate, Reliance, CalSTRS and Glass Lewis had previously announced that Aramco would be selling the company for $15 billion in 2019. However, this deal was stopped after fuel prices dropped and the outbreak of coronavirus.

Bloomberg News reports that Aramco might reach an agreement with Reliance in the coming weeks. Amin Nasser, chief executive officer of Aramco stated that the company is still conducting due diligence regarding the Reliance agreement at the August earnings briefing.

Al-Rumayyan, who is chairman of Aramco’s Board of Directors, has served as the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund since 2015.