[Rudra Shankar is a fifth-year BA LLB (Hons.) student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune] The procedure for mergers and demergers of companies in India is governed by sections 230 to 232 of the Companies Act, 2013. Companies are required to approach the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to obtain its sanction to such schemes of arrangement before they can take effect. Section 232(6) of the Act...
SEBI’s Karvy Order: Tightening the Screws on Stock Brokers
Late on Friday, 22 November 2019, the Securities and Exchange Board of India passed an order in the case involving Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL). The circumstances surrounding the order are atypical. The urgency of the situation is evident in the fact that the SEBI order, passed very late on 22 November, relies upon a “preliminary” report that it received from the National Stock Exchange of...
Can IBC be Invoked against a Financial Service Provider?
[Anirudh Agrawal is a fourth year student of Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad] Recently, a two-member bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Apeejay Trust v. Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Ltd instituted insolvency proceedings against one of the leading insurance companies of the country – Aviva Life Insurance. Given the exclusion of ‘financial service providers’ from the...
NBFCs and Other Financial Service Providers Now under IBC
[Ashwin Mathew and Bhushan Shah are with Mansukhlal Hiralal & Co, Mumbai] Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), the corporate insolvency resolution process contained in Part II applies to corporate debtors. A corporate debtor is defined as a “corporate person who owes a debt to any person.” Corporate person is defined to exclude financial service providers. A financial...
Disclosure of Loan Defaults by Listed Entities
Readers may recall the controversy surrounding a circular that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued in August 2017 to all listed companies requiring them to make a public disclosure to the stock exchanges within one working day of defaulting on loans and other financial facilities. In a blog post then, I had discussed the rationale for SEBI’s move. However, the circular came...
SAT Rules on “Materiality” of Disclosures
A somewhat peculiar fact situation arose for consideration of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in Electrosteels Limited v. Securities and Exchange Board of India (order dated 14 November 2019). Electrosteel Limited (ESL) embarked upon an initial public offering (IPO) in 2010. ESL’s parent is Electrosteel Castings Limited (ECL), a public listed company. Since iron ore is an essential raw...
Social Stock Exchange – A Breakthrough for the Impact Investing Sector
[Aditya Bhayal is a IV year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] In this year’s Budget Presentation, the Finance Minister announced the introduction of the Social Stock Exchange (SSE) in the Indian capital market. Following this, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently set up a panel to provide recommendations on the working and implementation of this concept. In...
Scope of Appeals against SEBI’s Disposal of Investor Complaints
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has established the “SEBI Complaints Redress System” (SCORES) for receiving investor complaints in respect of listed companies, collective investment schemes and other SEBI-regulated entities. The question of whether an appeal lies from SEBI’s disposal of an investor complaint through SCORES came up for consideration before the Securities...
The Foibles of a Databank and Proficiency Test for Independent Directors
There is no gainsaying that board independence has come to assume a pivotal position in corporate governance. Although it continues to receive constant criticism on account its ineffectiveness, no one musters the courage to banish it or even diminish its importance. While the concept of independent directors only gradually received the required attention and seriousness in India, it has been the...
Takeover Offer Price and the Valuation Conundrum
Generally, in a takeover or other form of transaction involving mergers and acquisitions (M&A), there could be broadly two types of disputes. The first type arises if the companies involved have failed to comply with the requisite procedures for undertaking the transaction, which ultimately adversely affects the interests of the shareholders. This would give rise to a cause for the...
Recent Comments