The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has acquired tremendous prominence in India since the enactment of the Companies Act, 2013 and the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 (the CSR Rules). They are applicable to large companies, whether or not they are listed on the stock exchange. Now, the Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises of the...
SEBI’s Order in the DLF Case: A Summary
[The following post is contributed by Supreme Waskar, partner at Sterling Associates, Mumbai] In its order dated October 10, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) has restrained DLF Limited (“DLF”), its 5 directors and CFO (“Noticees”) from accessing the securities market and prohibited them from dealing in securities for the period of 3 years on the ground of active and...
A Case Study for Spinoffs
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions tend to be analyzed mostly from the acquirer’s perspective, whether they involve mergers or takeovers. At the same time, they have enormous implications for the target or the seller. Businesses may have to be downsized, contracted or split due to which companies may have to engage in sale transactions or restructuring of their business undertakings...
Foreign Direct Investment: Trusts as Investment Vehicles
[Vishal Achanta has contributed the following guest post. Vishal is a 5th year student at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi] Recently, two investment vehicles have been introduced that as per the relevant SEBI regulations are to be set up as trusts: Real Estate Investment Trusts (‘REITs’) and Infrastructure Investment Trusts (‘IITs’). Both are intended to be pooling...
Amendments to the Provident Fund and Pension Fund Schemes Under the EPF Act
[The following guest post is contributed by Madhusudan Bose, who is a lawyer and company secretary by profession, at PRA Law Offices, New Delhi. Author’s views are personal] Pursuant to the proposals made by the Finance Minister in his Budget speech, the Ministry of Labour and Employment introduced a number of amendments to the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme (“EPF Scheme”) and the Employees’...
Bombay High Court Ruling in Favour of Vodafone in Share Issue Case
Over the last couple of years, Indian subsidiaries of multinational companies have been faced with the unique tax issue pertaining to the issuance of shares to their parent companies. The tax department has questioned the valuation on which shares have been issued by the Indian subsidiaries and sought to apply the transfer pricing provisions under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) to impute...
OECD on Public Enforcement of Corporate Governance in Asia
The principles and norms of corporate governance tend to operate through layers. On the one hand, there is the basic legislation, i.e. the Companies Act, SEBI Act and the like. Then there are specific norms in the form of clause 49 of the listing agreement that are mandatory for listed companies. Finally, there could be voluntary guidelines that exhort companies towards higher standards. That...
“Dual-class” Share Structures
The recent NYSE listing of Alibaba has once again brought to the fore the issue of dual-class share structures, as discussed in this column in the Economist. Alibaba’s founder and a group of insider shareholders have control rights that are disproportionate to their economic rights. The wave of dual-class structures in tech-IPOs was triggered by Google’s IPO in 2004, which was followed by another...
Restrictions on Tax Inversions
A few months ago, we had discussed the use of “inversion” deals by U.S. companies to minimize the effect of U.S. taxes. Since then, inversions have been the subject matter of intense debate from a policy perspective. Two potential regulatory responses have been proffered. One is more short-term by which the U.S. government limits the ability of companies to carry out inversion deals by either...
SEBI’s Final Order in GDR Manipulation Case
In a September 2011 post, we had discussed an ad-interim ex parte passed by SEBI in relation to a specific transaction structure that involved the use of global depository receipts (GDRs) to allegedly manipulate the stock price of several companies: The modus operandi was as follows. The companies issued GDRs, which were acquired by various foreign institutional investors (FIIs) or their sub...
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