Photo of Vijay Parthasarathi

Partner - Regional Co-head Markets Practice (South) at the Bengaluru office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Vijay has over 12 years of experience and focuses on public offerings of securities, including, initial public offerings, qualified institutions placements, institutional placement programmes, offer for sale through stock exchange mechanism, follow on public offerings, FCCBs etc. He has also been associated with debt offerings. He can be reached at vijay.parthasarathi@cyrilshroff.com

The most valuable commodity I know of is information.

– Gordon Gekko, Wall Street

Over the past few weeks, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has passed three orders[1] (SEBI Orders) in the infamous ‘WhatsApp leak’ saga that has been in the news since November 2017[2]. Holding the impugned perpetrators guilty of violating insider trading regulations, the regulator has taken significant steps in pushing the boundaries of the concepts of insider, UPSI and insider trading.Continue Reading SEBI and WhatsApp leaks: Every link in the chain matters

Debt capital markets - a bumpy road ahead

The novel coronavirus pandemic (“Covid-19”) has brought about a new set of challenges for the Indian economy. While our economy successfully weathered the 2008 financial crisis, the current scenario has halted economic activity for most of the sectors. While the reasons for the previous and current crises are different, some trends are similar. One of these is the inability of borrowers to service debt.

The 2008 financial crisis was characterised by defaults in various debt instruments such as term loans, external commercial borrowings and FCCBs. To combat this, the Reserve Bank of India introduced a host of measures such as relaxation on restructuring of various loan accounts[1] and allowance to firms to use rupee amounts to buy back FCCBs. Simultaneously, in order to create a vibrant market for corporate bonds[2], the Securities and Exchange Board of India introduced the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue and Listing of Debt Securities) Regulations, 2008 (the “SEBI ILDS Regulations”).
Continue Reading Debt Capital Markets – A Bumpy Road Ahead

April 2019 – Dawn of a New Era in Indian Corporate Governance?

2018 was an eventful year for the corporate governance regulatory framework in India. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) not only approved a host of recommendations made by the Kotak Committee on Corporate Governance (Kotak Committee), but also gave these recommendations the required regulatory impetus by notifying the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations, 2018.

Come April 1, 2019, a slew of these amendments (Amendments) will come into effect and all listed entities will be required to ensure their readiness in terms of implementation and compliance. Broadly, the Amendments have four intended targets: the board of directors, the listed company, the investors and the promoters.

Continue Reading April 2019 – Dawn of a New Era in Indian Corporate Governance?