[Shivam Yadav, Amudavalli Kannan, and Shreyas Bhushan are with Resolut Partners] Institutional investors, listed companies, and retail shareholders – three key market participants – will be watching SEBI with eagle-eyes while it attempts to implement a new disclosure regime, as set out in its recent consultation paper (Consultation Paper). Most of SEBI’s proposals are well-intentioned and...
Strengthening SEBI’s Investor Grievance Redressal Mechanism: Recent Efforts
[Tarun Toprani is an associate and Sumit Agrawal a partner at Regstreet Law Advisors. The authors can be reached at [email protected]] The preamble of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992 (“SEBI Act”) begins by stating that it is “[a]n Act to provide for the establishment of a Board to protect the interests of investors in securities…”. In fact, Section 11 of the SEBI Act, which...
SEBI Proposals to Revamp the Continuing Disclosure Regime
A robust continuing disclosure regime is a sine qua non for maintaining efficient capital markets. Over the years, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has developed and enhanced a continuing disclosure regime for Indian listed companies, which is now encapsulated in regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (the ‘LODR Regulations’)...
How Securities Laws are Enforced in India: Some Facts from a New Data-set of SEBI Orders
As the regulator of one of the world’s largest stock markets by market capitalization, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has several enforcement tools at its disposal. These include imposing monetary penalties, cancelling licences of regulated intermediaries and pursuing criminal proceedings against violators of the laws, regulations and rules administered by SEBI. Moreover, the...
Supreme Court on Motive as a Precondition for Insider Trading
In a significant decision in Securities and Exchange Board of India v. Abhijit Rajan (19 September 2022), the Supreme Court of India has ruled that the motive on the part of the insider to seek profits is an essential precondition for a successful insider trading charge. Such a directive from the Supreme Court is likely to have implications for insider trading cases currently within the...
An Analysis of SEBI’s Regulatory Framework for Bond Trading Platform
[Ganesh BL and Shubhalakshmi Bhattacharya are Associates at a law firm in Mumbai] On 21 July, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) issued a consultation paper (“Consultation Paper”) proposing a regulatory framework to govern online bond trading platforms (“Bond Platforms”). This comes at a time when India has witnessed a transformation in the number of retail investors...
Extension of Insider Trading Regulations to Mutual Funds
[Ajitesh Arya is the 4th year BA LLB (Hons.) students at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Recently, the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) floated a consultation paper proposing the expansion of the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 [Insider Trading Regulations] to encompass mutual fund units. The move is interesting as it comes in the aftermath of a front...
Analysing the Co-Investment Framework in India
[Dharmvir Brahmbhatt and Devarsh Shah are fifth year students at Gujarat National Law University] Over the last three decades, private equity investments in India and overseas have witnessed phenomenal development. Institutional investors have been attracted to the asset class owing to its persistent outperformance of public market benchmarks. Historically, commingled funds or “blind pools” of...
Debunking Special Situation Funds: Is India Ready for the Vultures?
[Aditya Shekhar and Abhishek Choudhary are Vth year B.A., LL.B. (Business Law Hons.) students at National Law University, Jodhpur] The need for inclusion of special situation fund [“SSF”] in the Indian financial market was felt due to India’s bad debt problem. It is evident from the recent trend and eagerness of financial institutions to sell off their non-performing assets [“NPA”], which...
Supreme Court on Pledge of Shares: Insider Trading Regulations May Require Review
[Vinita Nair is a Senior Partner at Vinod Kothari & Co.] Recently, in PTC India Financial Services Limited v. Venkateshwar Kari, the Supreme Court held that ‘beneficial ownership’ in the context of the Depositories Act should not be confused with beneficial ownership under general law as it is merely a procedural precondition to sale by the pledgee. Further, the Court found that there is no...
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