[The following guest post is contributed by Soham Roy & Akhil Nene, who are 5th year students at the National Law University Odisha] In a recent Board meeting, SEBI provided an in-principle nod to mandating the top 500 listed companies in India (according to market capitalization) to disclose a dividend disclosure policy. Such a policy may include circumstances under which their shareholders...
Due Diligence in Corporate Transactions and Insider Trading Laws
In corporate transactions involving shares of listed companies, the ability to conduct a detailed due diligence is constrained by laws that regulate insider trading. In a paper titled “Due Diligence in Share Acquisitions: Navigating the Insider Trading Regime”, I seek to examine this issue in detail. The abstract of the paper is as follows: The goal of this paper is to unpack the underlying...
SEBI’s Inconsistent Orders on Similar Securities Law Violations
[The following guest post is contributed by Supreme Waskar, who is a corporate lawyer] By way of its order dated April 20, 2016 in the matter of M/s. Krishna Enterprises & M/s. Rajesh Services Centre (“Appellants”), the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) observed that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is inconsistent in levying penalties for similar violations. The...
SEBI’s Interim Order in the Sharepro Case
Last week, SEBI issued an ex-parte ad-interim order in a case involving Sharepro Services (I) Private Limited, which is a registrar and transfer agent (RTA) for a number of companies. Based on certain complaints, SEBI began investigating into the affairs of Sharepro and found a number of irregularities. For example, dividends which were to be transferred into the Investor Education and Protection...
Equity-Based Crowdfunding as an Early-Stage Financing Alternative: Critique of the Regulatory Proposals in India
[The following guest post is contributed by Shwetha Chandrashekar, who is a Senior Associate in Bangalore, India at GameChanger Law Advisors. She can be contacted on [email protected].] With over 4200 start-ups, India is the fastest growing start-up ecosystem worldwide. It has the third-largest number of start-ups in the technology sector following the US and the UK.[1] However, India is...
SEBI’s Discretion (or Lack Thereof) in Imposing Penalty – A Twist in the Tale
[The following guest post is contributed by Vaneesa Agrawal, Securities Lawyer and former Legal Officer, SEBI. She can be reached at [email protected]. A previous post on this Blog relating to the subject matter can be found here.] Background There has been much furore in the corporate world due to the Supreme Court’s order in SEBI v. Roofit Industries Limited, [(2015 (12) SCALE 642...
Indian REITs – Story So Far, Challenges and Expectations from Budget 2016
[This guest post is contributed by Yashesh Ashar and Swati Adukia. They are tax professionals and specialize in mergers and acquisition tax. Please note that the views are personal] I. Introduction The Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) notified the SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014 (“REIT Regulations”)...
Understanding the Exit Rights Provided by Private Companies
[The following guest post is contributed by Ananya Banerjee, a 5th Year Student of University of Calcutta, Department of Law] Investing in companies (especially in startups) involves a huge risk. For this reason, financial investors look for exit rights which allow them to exit the company with a high return on the investment amount. While the aim of the strategic investors is not to...
Cashless Employee Stock Option Scheme and Insider Trading Regulations
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) issued a guidance note clarifying certain matters regarding employee stock option plans (ESOPs) and their implications under the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 (the “Insider Trading Regulations”). Specifically, it stated that the “contra-trade” restrictions do not apply to the exercise of stock options by...
Penny Wise : A Crowdfunding Critique
[The following guest post is contributed by Anantha Krishnan Iyer, a graduate of National Law University Lucknow (batch of 2008-2013) currently working with a leading law firm in Mumbai] Introduction Pooling as a concept that has existed for a while now, as it is considered a useful solution to generate certain efficiencies. The advent of pooling of funds by multiple persons to fund a project...
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