Tag: Derivatives
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Legality of Derivatives: Emerging Signs
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Readers will recall that over the last few months several companies had entered into derivative transactions with banks wherein they were required to pay significant amounts of money to banks. When faced with claims from the banks, these companies challenged the validity of these derivative transactions in various courts in India,…
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Miscellaneous: Commodities futures, FDI, Exchange-traded funds
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The following are some key developments in the corporate sector over the last couple of days that are worth noting: 1. Commodities FuturesWe had earlier discussed on this blog the preliminary findings of the Expert Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Abhijit Sen, which failed to find a clear causation between…
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Disclosures in Complex Transactions
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] With increasing complexity in transactions entered into by companies, especially in the financial sector, there is the lingering question of how these transactions are to be meaningfully disclosed to shareholders of the companies so as to enable them to take an investment decision (such as to buy, sell, hold, etc.). The…
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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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Directors’ Duties During Times of Crises
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] 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…
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More on the Indian Derivatives Saga
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] 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.…
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Derivatives in Commodities: Some Issues
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] This is a cross-post from the Law and Other Things Blog.The issue over commodities exchanges and trading of futures and options in respect commodities has been brought to the fore with the Left parties deciding not to support the Forward Contracts (Regulation) Amendment Bill. By way of background, commodities trading can…
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Trading in Futures – Financial Instruments of Mass Destruction?
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] The exposure of Indian corporates and banks to derivatives has been receiving a lot of attention lately. For example, see LiveMint (here and here), Financial Express and Economic Times. But, what are some of the key legal considerations that arise in the case of derivative transactions? To examine those, we have…