The following papers on corporate governance in India are available on SSRN. Details, including abstracts, are set out below: 1. Corporate Governance and the Indian Private Equity Model by Afra Asharipour. Private Equity (PE) firms have long invested in Western firms using a leveraged buyout (LBO) model, whereby they acquire a company that they can...
Case-Study Evidence of Shareholder Activism
We have previously highlighted the rise of shareholder activism in India (here and here). Activism has been aided by regulatory reforms that have enlarged shareholder participation. In addition, market changes have resulted in previously passive institutional investors becoming more active in recent times. They have further been supported by the emergence of a growing and vibrant proxy advisory...
The Companies Law Committee on Section 117 and Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel
[The following guest post is contributed by Amitabh Robin Singh, who is an Associate at DSK Legal] In an earlier post, this author had discussed the proposed changes made by the Companies Law Committee (“Committee”) to Chapter 3 (Prospectus and Allotment of Securities) of the Companies Act, 2013 (“2013 Act”). In this post, a particular observation of the Committee, which stretches between...
Omnibus Approval of Related Party Transactions and Threshold for Fraud Reporting by Auditors
[The following guest post is contributed by Amitabh Robin Singh, who is an Associate at DSK Legal] With the notification bringing Sections 13 and 14 of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015 (“Amendment Act”) into force being published in the official gazette on December 15, 2015, we now have new provisions on the omnibus approval of related party transactions by companies. On a separate note, a...
Bhishma, the Ultimate Resource for Business and Politics
[The following guest post is contributed by Professor B.N. Balasubramanian, who is Adjunct Professor of Corporate Governance at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad] Among the myriad of players in the great epic, The Mahabharata, two characters stand out prominently towering over the rest: Bhishma, the scion who renounces his right to the kingdom to enable his father marry a...
Corporate Governance Lessons from the Erstwhile Managing Agency System
I have a working paper on SSRN titled “Corporate Law in Colonial India: Rise and Demise of the Managing Agency System”, the abstract of which is as follows: This paper focuses on the managing agency system, a peculiar type of corporate governance arrangement that emanated in India during the colonial period. Under this system, a managing agent (either an individual, partnership firm or company)...
Papers on M&A Agreements, Woman Director
Professor Afra Afsharipour has posted on SSRN two papers that may be of interest to readers. They are listed below along with abstracts. Legal Transplants in the Law of the Deal: M&A Agreements in India This chapter reviews the transformation of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in India. Due to globalization and economic liberalization, India has experienced a significant wave of...
Promoter Shareholdings in Indian Companies
That concentration of shareholdings in public listed companies is the norm is beyond doubt. At the same time, studies have been seeking to ascertain the level of shareholdings held by controlling shareholders (or promoters). Some such studies are set out below: (a) A study by Rajesh Chakrabarti shows average promoter shareholdings in Indian companies in...
Changing Nature of the Corporation
The latest issue of the Economist carries two columns (here and here) that analyze the significant changes that have occurred in the nature of the modern corporation, particularly with respect to ownership. This is an addition to an earlier column in September. These columns highlight the more recent developments relating to the nature of the corporation, and question whether the diffused...
The Introduction of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) In India
[The following guest post is contributed by Dhanush. M, a 5th year student at the Jindal Global Law School] `Leverage without supporting cash flows could be the death knell for the real estate industry`. The present state of the Indian real estate industry could be a testament to this adage where the total net debt of the top ten real estate firms by market capitalisation stood at Rs...
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