Author: Contributor

  • Disclosure Norms for Law Firms

    So far, public listings of securities by law firms has not caught on despite the first law firm (Australia’s Slater & Gordon) listing about a year ago. The legal practice regulations in most jurisdictions do not permit law firms to either take a corporate form or to issue its securities to the public. But, if…

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  • SEBI Pricing Norms & Private Equity

    When the market prices of companies in India are lower than what they were a few months ago, they would obviously be attractive to private equity funds and similar investors. However, the SEBI minimum pricing norms as set out in Chapter XIII of the SEBI (Disclosure & Investor Protection) Guidelines, 2000 are hampering deals in…

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  • Dispute Resolution under the New Company Law

    The establishment of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has been mired in controversy right from the start. Although the Companies Act was amended as early as 2002 to pave the way for the NCLT, the body is yet to be established (and the relevant provisions of the Amendment Act of 2002 are yet to…

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  • Consolidation in the Indian Financial Sector

    The financial services sector in India (both in the banking and non-banking finance industry) has witnessed consolidation over the last few years through various mergers & acquisitions. This trend will perhaps continue in the future as well. A recent speech by V. Leeladhar, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India contains a good overview…

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  • Short Selling is Here

    We had carried an earlier post commenting on the proposed introduction of short selling on the Indian stock exchanges and discussing the broad implications of that move. Short selling is now being implemented with effect from Monday, April 21, 2008, and the Bombay Stock Exchange as well as the National Stock Exchange have installed their…

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  • Regulating Companies: Whose Role is it Anyway?

    In the case of listed companies, when it comes to corporate governance, there is a classic dichotomy in regulation. On the one hand, it is the Ministry of Company Affairs that is largely responsible for the implementation of the Companies Act, 1956, while it is SEBI that is responsible for implementation of the corporate governance…

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  • Directors’ Duties During Times of Crises

    The unexpected market conditions in recent times have rocked corporate boards world over. Healthy companies have begun to declare less satisfactory results, while the unlucky one’s face extinction. Companies are increasingly being exposed to liabilities towards shareholders, creditors and other counterparties, and consequently, directors of such companies are having to face difficult conditions in which…

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  • SWFs and Capital Flows

    The Indian Government’s latest position on sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) can be gathered from a recent speech delivered by the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Y.V. Reddy at a session on ‘The Role of Government-owned Investment Vehicles in Global Capital Flows’ in the International Capital Markets and Emerging Markets Roundtable held at…

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  • More on the Indian Derivatives Saga

    While the legalities of several derivative transactions entered into between banks and corporates are pending consideration of courts, it appears that these matters have ended up in court in the first place because of unexpected market movements over the last few months which defied all prior indications and past market history. Livemint has a detailed…

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  • Measuring the Success of Capitalism

    Being back on blawgosphere after a brief hiatus, I noticed this interesting column by Arun Maira in today’s Times of India. By way of background, the recent events in the US and UK have cast a serious doubt on the efficacy of capitalism as a viable economic model. It has been subject to challenge in…

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