Under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, as amended (“SEBI Listing Regulations”), listed companies are required to submit their financial results within 45 days of end of each quarter, other than the last quarter of a financial year where they have 60 days.
Continue Reading Post-IPO financial results – when to disclose
India’s twin achievement of receiving the highest-ever FDI[1] and touching record highs at the bourses[2] occurred in the Financial Year 2020-2021. While the former came about in the first five months of the fiscal year (i.e. during the COVID-19 lockdown), the latter took place near the end of the calendar year 2020.
The year 2020 saw unprecedented business disruption due to the pandemic. Many Indian businesses were forced to reorganise and innovate to tackle the pandemic, which also resulted in revaluation of many firms by their acquirers. Cash rich and savvy investors took advantage of this unrivalled opportunity to make acquisitions and investments which is evident from the overall high deal activity in the calendar year 2020, especially in Q4.
Continue Reading Takeover of Publicly Traded Companies: Flashback 2020
The SEBI Board in its meeting held on June 25, 2020, has approved providing listed companies with a time-bound temporary option of undertaking preferential allotments at a possibly more investment-friendly pricing, by choosing to utilise the higher of the two weeks or the 12 weeks formula price (i.e. based on the average of the weekly high and low of the volume weighted average price quoted on the stock exchange – the pricing formula) instead of the existing norm of higher of the two weeks or the 26 weeks formula price. Given the current market conditions, which has seen a significant stock price drop since the second half of March, 2020, this option is bound to result in lower and arguably more favourable pricing for potential investments.
Continue Reading New Pricing for Preferential Allotments: Getting on the Funding Train
With the slowdown in the economy and unprecedented business disruption due to Covid 19, several Indian listed companies, which were already heavily leveraged, will soon be looking at avenues for further funding to meet working capital requirements and liquidity challenges. Given the current regulatory regime surrounding raising of equity capital, it is possible that some of the over-leveraged ones may become insolvent. With a view to facilitate fund raising by such listed companies that have stressed assets, the market regulator has come up with a consultation paper, that provides certain procedural relaxations to the SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosures Requirements) Regulations, 2018 (ICDR Regulations) and SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (SAST Regulations).
Continue Reading SEBI Consultation Paper For Listed Companies With Stressed Assets – Cure For The Sick Could Be Vaccine For All
Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has recently issued a General Order on issuing observations on offer documents when there are pending regulatory actions, superseding a 2006 general order on the same subject. The General Order 1 of 2020, which was issued on February 5, 2020, sets out the circumstances under which SEBI can withhold observations on draft offer documents (companies cannot launch issues until SEBI provides observations).
We discuss the SEBI order, its implications, and whether this is a step in the right direction for a disclosure-oriented securities regime.
Continue Reading SEBI General Order 2020: What it means for cos, investors & overall capital markets’ efficiency