Last year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) clamped down on upside sharing arrangements between promoters or senior management of listed companies on the one hand and private equity investors on the other. Accordingly, the securities regulator amended the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (the “LODR Regulations”) to introduce regulation...
Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process and Implications on Securities Laws: Recent Changes
[Guest post by Yogesh Chande, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas. View of the author are personal] SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (“Takeover Regulations”) The newly inserted provision in regulation 10 of the Takeover Regulations, notified on 14 August 2017, exempts an acquisition pursuant to a resolution plan approved under section 31 of...
SAT Rejects Appeals in the United Spirits Case
We had earlier this year discussed SEBI’s ad-interim ex parte order in the United Spirits Limited (USL) case by which several persons (including Mr. Vijay Mallya) were prohibited from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in any securities, with some of them being restrained from holding positions as directors or key managerial personnel of any listed company. Against this, some of the persons...
SAT Order on “Shell” Companies
The issue of “shell” companies has captured the attention of the regulators over the last couple of years. There is a pervading sense of regulatory fear that, left unchecked, shell companies may be utilized for various illegal purposes, including money laundering. The Government has been taking steps at various levels to deal with what it visualizes as a menace of shell companies. One instance...
Report on Regulation of Credit Rating Agencies in India
[Guest post by Shreya Prakash, who is a Research Fellow in the Corporate Law & Financial Regulation vertical at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy] Credit ratings are an opinion of a recognised entity on the relative creditworthiness of a debt instrument. Entities that form these opinions, i.e., credit rating agencies (‘CRAs’), are essential gatekeepers of the financial system. In fact...
SEBI Requires Disclosure of Loan Defaults
Over the last couple of years, there has been a steady regulatory move to create some connections between the banking system and the capital markets in order to address cases of loan defaults by companies, especially those listed on the stock exchanges. Take the case of wilful defaulters, who are effectively now kept out of the capital markets (as discussed here on this Blog). Another mechanism...
SAT Affirms SEBI’s Power to Lift the Corporate Veil
In an order passed yesterday in Sahara Asset Management Company P. Ltd v. Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (“SAT”) considered an appeal from an order of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) in which SEBI had found that Sahara India Financial Corporation Ltd. (“Sahara Sponsor”) is not a “fit and proper” person and hence the Sahara Mutual Fund...
Non-Disposal Undertaking and its Reporting in the Indian Securities Market
[Guest post by Divyajyot Verma, a student at the Jindal Global Law School] Non-Disposal Undertakings (or agreements) (“NDUs”) are signed usually by the debtor in favour of the lender in relation to any loan obligation undertaken by the debtor. An NDU helps in ensuring that the debtor does not transfer the shares held by it in a company by way of outside arrangements such that the creditor is left...
Promoter Exits in India: Reined by the Market Watchdog?
[Guest post by Malek Shipchandler, who practices law with a firm in Mumbai. Views are personal and do not necessarily represent those of the firm.] It was reported last week that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is likely to relax rules pertaining to promoter reclassification in listed companies. An article co-authored by Gaurav Malhotra and I for the Oxford Business Law Blog in...
SAT Order in the Satyam Case
In July 2014, we had discussed the order of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) then passed against several members of Satyam’s senior management for their role in perpetrating the colossal financial fraud involving the company. In its order, SEBI found several individuals guilty of violating various regulations issued by SEBI, and restrained them from accessing the capital markets...
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