Blog Posts
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SEBI amends Takeover Regulations – but on a narrow, Satyam-type cases, compass
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] SEBI has amended the Takeover Regulations today, Friday, 13th February 2009 (see here) and the subject is what we had all been expecting and that it is an enabling provision to exempt open offer requirements in Satyam-like cases. The amendment empowers SEBI to exempt from one or more provisiions of the…
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“Beyond Satyam: Analyzing Corporate Governance in India”
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] That was the theme for a panel discussion organized last week in New York by the Jindal Global Law School. The panel consisted of internationally renowned academics and practitioners of corporate governance: Mr. Roel Campos, former SEC Commissioner, Professor John Coffee of Columbia Law School, Professor Michael Useem of the Wharton…
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FDI in Indian Investing Companies
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Indirect investment into Indian operating companies that are the subject matter of sectoral percentage caps on foreign investment has always been a vexed question. For instance, if a foreign company invests directly into an Indian operating company, and also invests in another Indian company that in turn invests into the operating…
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Lessons for Financial Sector Regulation
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, offers his explanation of the things that went wrong in the financial services sector which resulted in contagion and the global financial crisis. In his column in the Financial Times, Blankfein outlines the failings and the lessons from the crisis: – risk management…
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Dealing with Duopoly in a Regulated Sector
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] A recent episode involving determination of fees by commodity exchanges has sparked off an intense debate on the role of a regulator in dealing with a duopoly situation. The regulator here is the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) and the players the two commodities exchanges, NCDEX and MCX. The trigger is a…
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Disclosure of Pledge of shares of Promoters – some more thoughts
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] SEBI had notified amendments requiring disclosure of pledged/encumbered shares of Promoters that were discussed preliminarily here where the links of the notifications were also given. A reading of these notifications, issued differently over a few days, but read together, reveals some points worth highlighting here. 1. It may be recollected that…
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SEBI provides disclosure formats for pledged shares of Promoters
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] Further to my earlier post here, SEBI has issued today, 3rd February 2009, two circulars which essentially lay down formats for disclosures of pledged shares by Promoters and related matters. The first one gives the format for disclosures pursuant to newly introduced Regulation 8A of the Takeover Regulations and the second…
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Proposed Change in Takeover Rules: More than Just Satyam
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] A few days ago, when newspapers reported that SEBI was considering an exemption from the minimum pricing norms in the context of a potential takeover offer on Satyam, the obvious question arose as to how an exception can be made in respect of a single company, and that too one which…
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SEBI notifies amendments for disclosure of pledged shares of Promoters
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] SEBI has notified here the amendments requiring disclosure of pledged shares of Promoters and persons forming part of the Promoter Group (referred collectively as “Promoters” here). This issue has been the hot topic on and off this Blog and hence much background is not required for this except a few brief…