The SEBI (Share Based Employee Benefits) Regulations, 2014 (the “Regulations”) regulate various types of schemes offered by companies to their employees relating to shares. In two separate letters issued pursuant to requests for informal guidance, SEBI has stated that the Regulations are not applicable to phantom stock options and similar schemes that do not involve the actual issue or transfer...
Is the Alternate Listing Platform for Start-Ups Really an Alternative?
[The following guest post is contributed by Geeta Dhania, Partner and Abhyuday Bhotika, Associate at Luthra & Luthra Law Offices. Views are personal.] For any business to grow it is pertinent that it has access to capital and is able to complete the capital formation cycle. Companies should be able to access the funding they need for their growth and the investors should be able to smoothly...
SEBI’s Action on Illegal Collective Investment Schemes
[The following guest post is contributed by Pavit Singh Kochar, a legal associate (corporate) with KNM & Partners Law Offices, New Delhi] The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the Indian market regulator has been taking significant steps over the last couple of years by protecting the interests of retail investors due to their inability to take a well-informed decision about...
Supreme Court on SEBI’s Jurisdiction Over GDRs
The Supreme Court in Securities and Exchange Board of India v. Pan Asia Advisors Ltd. clarified that the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) extends to the issuance of global depository receipts (GDRs) by Indian companies to foreign investors, and also to ensnare lead managers to such issuances if they have an adverse impact on the Indian securities markets. Although...
Analysis of the New SEBI Promoter Re-classification Norms
[The following guest post is contributed by Shashank Prabhakar, a Senior Associate with Finsec Law Advisors. These are the author’s personal views] Shareholders in a listed company are classified under two broad categories, i.e., those that belong to the promoter / promoter group and those shareholders who are members of the public with no familial or formal business ties with the promoter /...
Personal Liberty vs. Public (Financial) Interest
In the prolonging Sahara saga, following a contempt action initiated by SEBI last year the Supreme Court ordered judicial custody for Mr. Subrata Roy Sahara and certain other individuals. This is on account of their failure to comply with a previous judgment of the Supreme Court that orders two Sahara companies to repay monies to investors obtained in violation of various securities laws...
Materiality and Disclosure Under Clause 36 of the Listing Agreement
[The following guest post is contributed by Supreme Waskar, who is a corporate lawyer] By an order passed earlier this month, an adjudicating officer of SEBI imposed a fine of Rs. 2 crores on New Delhi Television Ltd. (“NDTV”) for failure to promptly disclose material information to stock exchanges under clause 36 of the listing agreement. Facts of the case On February 21, 2014, NDTV had received...
Duty of a Crowdfund Campaigner towards Contributors
[The following post is contributed by Nikunj Agarwal, a 3rd year, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at RML National Law University, and Arjun Agarwal, a 2nd year, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) at W.B. National University of Juridical Sciences. They may be contacted at [email protected]. This post discusses the first legal proceeding by the Federal Trade Commission of United States with reference to...
Lenders Empowered to Take Control over Distressed Firms
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) yesterday conferred a significant power to banks to acquire control of borrower companies which fail to achieve prescribed milestones as part of their restructuring. Under this arrangement, the Joint Lenders’ Forum (or JLF, formed for the purpose of addressing distressed assets) may “convert the whole or part of the loan and interest outstanding into equity shares...
Whether Land is a “Security” Under Collective Investment Schemes
[The following guest post is contributed by Prachi Pandya, who is the founding member of Corporate Attorneys and can be contacted at [email protected]] It is a matter of interest that the trigger point of framing the SEBI (Collective Investment Schemes) Regulations, 1999 (the “CIS Regulations”) was owing to initiatives by private entrepreneurs undertaking plantation or agricultural...
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