By Latest News
By Chiranjivi Chakraborty and Ashutosh Joshi
India’s capital market regulator on Thursday made it easier for companies to delist, a move that may pave the way for founders to revive such initiatives after recent failures.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India approved a fixed-price model where founders can offer to buy back shares from the public at a minimum 15 per cent premium to the fair price. This is an alternative to the reverse booking building process, which often pushed stock prices to “stratospheric levels,” Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch told reporters in Mumbai.
“The introduction of a fixed price delisting regime is a game changer,” Abhishek Dadoo, partner at Khaitan & Co. said by email. This “is certain to provide a boost to public M&A deal activity,” he said.
Under the new rules, a founder can make a counter offer to shareholders after receiving bids based on the delisting floor price as long as they secure 75 per cent stake in the company. Further, more than half of the public investors should have also tendered their shares, according to SEBI.
For founders, “listing had become a no-exit” endeavor but with this framework “both entry and exit will be possible and realistic”, said Makarand Joshi, founder of MMJC & Associates, a corporate compliance firm in Mumbai.
Derivatives Boom
SEBI also formed a panel to examine risk management and investor protection in the equity derivatives market. While no time line has been specified for when the working group will submit its report, any changes proposed will be circulated via a discussion paper.
“There is a large amount of money going from household savings into unproductive activity,” Buch said. “The numbers are very stark.”
This surge has come despite repeated warnings from SEBI, whose own studies suggested that 90 per cent of active retail traders lose money trading futures and options.
The Reserve Bank of India Thursday said that it “is imperative to closely monitor risks emerging from this segment and initiate appropriate and proactive policy response”. Last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s warned that “unchecked retail surge” in derivatives could led to future challenges for the markets and household finances.
First Published: Jun 28 2024 | 12:46 PM IST