1. Investments from Bangladesh eased The Economic Times reports that Bangladeshi investors are now allowed to Indian companies, albeit with the approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (and not under the automatic route). This removes a previous embargo on such investments. The report states: “India has opened its door for investments from Bangladesh by dropping the country from the...
Simplifying Corporate Bond Issuances
Continuing with the spate of regulatory announcements by SEBI over the turn of the new year, it yesterday issued a press release proposing simplification of the primary issuance process for corporate bonds. It has released a consultative paper on the “Draft SEBI (Issue and Listing of Debt Securities) Regulations, 2008” for comment until January 23, 2008. The paper aims at simplification of the...
Indian Acquisitions in the US: A Quick Checklist of Issues
The Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Blog carries a recent post that contains a handy checklist of critical current issues that should be considered in advance of any acquisition of US businesses by non-US entities. The checklist has been prepared and posted by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, the top US law firm in the M&A space. The checklist would also be helpful to Indian...
PSUs and Corporate Governance
In a continuation of the debate between SEBI and the public sector undertakings (PSUs) over whether the latter should comply with the provisions of Clause 49 of the listing agreement regarding corporate governance, the SEBI Chairman, Mr. Damodaran has categorically stated that there will be no relaxation for PSUs from the applicability of the corporate governance norms (see reports in the...
Now, Kidnapping Insurance
Today’s Business Times, Singapore (page requires subscription) carries an interesting story that companies in India are taking out kidnapping insurance for their top employees located in high-growth hubs such as Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi suburbs Gurgaon and Noida. As for the nature of the policies taken, the newspaper reports: “The kidnapping-terror policies cover ransom, hiring charges of...
Participatory Notes: Regulating Complex Financial Instruments
Today’s Mint carries a column by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha that deals with the issues relating to regulation of complex financial instruments such as participatory notes that are held by investors like hedge funds. Referring to the classic debate between public regulation and market regulation, he states: “Regulators have two options: to demand more clarity on what is going on or to clamp down on...
Insider Trading and Short Swing Profits
SEBI yesterday issued a Consultative Paper on introduction of ‘Short Swing Profit’ regulations in India. Under this proposal, any insider would be compelled to surrender profits to the company that are derived from a transaction involving the purchase and sale of securities by the insider within a period of six months. The consultative paper sets out the objective of the proposed regulation:...
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