Blog Posts
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Indian Corporates on an African Trail
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Several large as well as medium sized Indian companies have undertaken outbound investments and offshore acquisitions in the last decade. These have primarily been in developed markets such as the United States or in various European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and so on. The year 2008 has witnessed…
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IPO Scam: Another SEBI Order Set Aside
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] In an order passed on May 2, 2008, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) set aside the order of SEBI that directed 10 entities (including Karvy Stock Broking Limited) to disgorge a sum of Rs. 115.82 crores. The Hindu Business Line has a background to the case: “The scam related to certain…
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Differential Voting Rights as a Takeover Defence
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Shares with differential voting rights (DVRs) have been permitted to be issued by Indian companies since 2001 when the Companies (Issue of Share Capital with Differential Voting Rights) Rules were issued. Not only have there been stringent conditions imposed with respect to issuance of shares with DVRs, but the rules themselves…
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Micro..hoo: A New Twist
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] This new development on the international M&A front is worth briefly noting on this blog. We had all expected to see a highly-contested battle for control of Yahoo! panning out over the next few months. A hostile bid by Microsoft was keenly on the cards. But, it all ended last weekend…
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Revised Limited Liability Partnership Bill on the Horizon
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] A revised bill on Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) has been approved by the Union Cabinet, reports The Economic Times. The LLP Bill is set to be introduced in Parliament soon. The establishment of LLPs would enable professional services firms, such as those constituted by chartered accountants and lawyers, to carry on…
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Draft Report on Commodity Futures
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] One of the reasons ascribed to the recent price rise in India is the introduction and expansion of the commodities futures markets. This has, however, been partly put to rest if one were to go by the observations contained in the draft report of the Expert Committee on Commodity Futures Trading…
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A Weak Start to Short Selling
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Although short sales were allowed to commence last week (on April 21, 2008), the response thus far has been lukewarm. Various reasons have been offered for this result. The Hindu Business Line reports that market players attributed the poor response to bad timing, to relatively higher margin requirements for securities lending…
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Corporate Governance & Enforcement
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The corporate governance norms prescribed by SEBI were tightened earlier this month (as discussed here), whereby the requirement of independence of directors has been made more stringent. However, it is disheartening to note that while there is a move by the regulator to enhance mandatory norms on corporate governance at a…
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REMFs: The New Indian Real Estate Investment Opportunity
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] It was back in 2006 that SEBI had cleared the deck for the launch of real estate mutual funds (REMFs) as means to enable retail investors to take advantage of the enhancement in Indian property prices. For almost two years, there were no concrete steps taken to promulgate regulations for the…
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Success of Venture Capital Investments in India
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] One of our readers, Aravind Balajee, brings to our attention this story from VC Circle. It relates to a tremendously successful exit by a venture capital investor, UTI Ventures, from an Indian portfolio company, Excelsoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd. The details are here: “There is a thing or two to learn from…