Tag: SEBI
-
Staid Capital Markets
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Primary capital market activity in the form of public offerings and rights offerings is virtually down to a trickle. While that is not at all surprising considering the somber market conditions, some numbers have been recently reported in the Business Standard as follows: Fund mobilisation through initial public offerings (IPOs) touched…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Pyramid Saimira: SEBI Investigation
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] A couple of days ago, the media carried reports of SEBI having directed one of the promoters to make an open offer to the shareholders of Pyramid Saimira Theatres Limited at a price that is at a substantial premium to current market price. However, just a day later, SEBI put out…
-
Analysis of Recent SAT Rulings on Insider Trading and FUTP Against Dilip Pendse
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (The following post is contributed by Bhushan Shah, an Indian lawyer currently pursuing a dual degree LL.M from New York University School of Law and National University of Singapore) The Securities Appellate Tribunal (‘SAT’ or ‘Tribunal’ ) recently set aside two orders (collectively referred as ‘Impugned Orders’ ) passed by market…
-
Transparency Measures in SEBI
[Posted by Somasekhar Sundaresan] The Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) is taking significant and material steps towards bringing in transparency in its own workings. First, the status of offer documents being processed by SEBI is now online. After repeated complaints about delays in clearing offer documents, SEBI now publishes every week, the status…
-
Key Decisions at SEBI Board Meeting
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] SEBI’s recent board meeting has resulted in certain significant decisions impacting capital markets activity in India as well as SEBI’s own decision-making process. Public/Rights Offerings: Observation Letter When a draft offer document is filed with SEBI, either in a public offering (initial public offering (IPO) or follow-on public offering (FPO)) or…
-
INSIDER TRADING REGULATIONS – HIGHLIGHTS TO THE AMENDMENTS AND SOME POSERS
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] 1) SEBI has amended the SEBI Prohibition of Insider Trading Regulations 1992 vide a notification dated 19th November 2008 which I briefly highlighted here. There are some far reaching amendments. 2) An important amendment is to the definition of “insider”. As I mentioned earlier, no word has been added or deleted…
-
SEBI Board meeting of 6th October: Important Decisions
[Posted by Mihir Naniwadekar] In a meeting earlier today, the SEBI Board took several decisions which may have an important impact. 1. The Board decided to encourage promotion of dedicated exchanges/platforms for trading of securities for small and medium enterprises. Enterprises with a post issue paid up capital of less that Rs. 25 crore would…
-
The Impact of Status Quo on Participatory Notes
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] Last week, there was expectation that SEBI would make some announcements regarding issuance of participatory notes (P-notes) by foreign institutional investors, particularly that curbs on P-notes will be removed. However, no decision was taken by SEBI and it was decided to defer the matter. In an editorial, the Financial Express comes…