SEBI accuses Hong Kong's Factorial Capital of insider trading

Mumbai: The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) accused Hong Kong-based Factorial Capital Management Ltd of insider trading, saying it suspected the hedge fund had shorted L&T Finance Holdings Ltd before the announcement of a share sale in mid-March.

The stock market regulator on Thursday also reserved the option of looking into Credit Suisse`s Indian unit, which had been the broker for L&T Finance`s share sale, but did not accuse the investment bank of any wrongdoing or announce the start of an actual investigation.

SEBI clears Diageo's open offer worth Rs 11,448.91 cr for USL

New Delhi: worldwide fluid giant Diageo Plc has established market regulator SEBI's permission for an open offer to obtain extra 26 percent stake in United feelings Ltd for Rs 11,448.91 crore.

This is the subsequent open offer made by Diageo to gain best part manage in India's number one fluid hard.

As part of the contract to buy 53.4 percent wager in Vijay Mallya-led UB group's USL, Diageo has made a Rs 11,448.91 crore open offer for pay for of 26 percent wager in the company from non-promoter shareholders.

The open offer, which was complete last month, has been now empty by the Securities and Exchange Board of India, according to a public announcement.

Govt to offer related tax action to FPIs, FIIs

 

The government has decided to provide related tax action to Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), as presented to foreign institutional investors (FIIs) at there.

 

In a declaration on Tuesday, market controller Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said the three categories of Foreign Portfolio Investors - FIIs, sub-accounts and capable foreign investors (QFIs) - would be specified related tax action as available to FIIs presently

.

The latest regulations aspire to get all foreign investors less than a common structure, called the Sebi (Foreign Portfolio Investors) policy, 2013.

These procedures come at a time when the rupee has diluted significantly in opposition to the dollar and very soon hit its all-time low levels of 60 in opposition the American money.

what's more, FIIs have been pulling out currency from the Indian debt market, which has resulted in the hardening of yields on government link.

Sebi drops IPO grading; allows cos to file projection list

 
To make fund raising process easier, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday made the preliminary public offer (IPO) grading mechanism by credit rating agencies charitable and allowed companies to file shelf list with one-year validity for multiple issuance of debt securities.

The Sebi 's board approved the proposal to make the IPO grading system voluntary as against the current provision of being mandatory. The move is part of the regulator's effort to boost the dormant primary market and reduce the reliance on rating agencies, who have been under scanner globally for their role in overall financial sector.

The IPO market had been dormant for almost three years.

Sebi-approved IPO proposals worth Rs 72,000 crore are yet to hit the market, according to Prime Data, a market research and consulting firm. The last major IPO was from Coal India in 2010.

This move follows a requests from market participants, investor associations among others.

In another measure to prop up the capital markets, Sebi's board allowed shelf-prospectus for corporate bond issues.

Domestic corporate bonds are a small portion of a market that is now dominated by government securities.

A shelf-prospectus enables companies to issue corporate bonds utilising the same documents more than once, which will help cut costs and save time.

Sebi extended the facility to file shelf prospectus for issuing non-convertible debt securities for non-banking finance companies, including infrastructure debt funds (IDFCs), besides public sector financial institutions, public sector banks and scheduled banks.

The regulator has also suggested allowing issuers authorised by central board of direct taxes (CBDT) to make public issue tax free secured bonds to file shelf prospectus.

According to Companies Act, 1956, any public financial institution, public sector bank or scheduled bank, whose main object is financing, was allowed to file a shelf prospectus.

To avoid fragmentation of the issues, which will affect the floating stock and thereby liquidity, Sebi said that only a maximum of four issuance can be made under a Shelf Prospectus.

Further, companies filing a shelf prospectus with the Registrar of Companies are not required to file prospectus afresh at every stage of offer of securities, within the period of validity of such shelf prospectus that is one year.

They are required to file only an information memorandum, containing material updations, with respect to subsequent issues.

NBFCs and other listed issuers would be eligible for filing shelf prospectus only if meet certain criteria, including having a networth of at least Rs 500 crore.

Corporate bonds accounted for 21 per cent of the overall outstanding debt of Rs 62 trillion in the country, with the rest controlled by the government securities market, according to a study by rating agency Crisil last month.

Sebi board clears new norms for implement of improved powers

 

To make certain greater value in exercise of its new powers, market regulator Sebi 's board on Tuesday cleared new norms for its search and capture operations, settlement proceedings, give back to investors and crackdown on illegitimate money-pooling schemes.

The new norms also seek to ensure that sufficient safeguards are put in place to avoid any use rongly

of its new powers and the required privacy of individuals is granted while conducting search and abduction operations.

At the same time, detailed regulations have also been put in place for settlement of admistrative and civil proceedings in a transparent manner, while ensuring that serious offences like insider trading are kept out of settlement window.

The decisions were taken at a board meeting of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi ), which is also believed to have discussed matters like new Corporate Governance Code for listed companies, revision of insider trading norms and a new framework for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs).

However, a final decision is yet to be taken on corporate governance code, REITs and new insider trading norms, sources said.

The seven decisions announced by Sebi after the board meeting also included doing away with mandatory IPO grading, list being valid for one year for multiple draft offers, and a tax treatment similar to FIIs being accorded to FPIs (Foreign Portfolio Investors), a newly created class of abroad investors.

As many as four decisions are related to the spread of an ordinance by the government for grant of greater powers to Sebi to check escalating of illegal money-pooling schemes across the country and to take strict actions against fraudsters and market manipulators.

Bank licences: Sebi scans listed applicants, firms

As the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gears up to issue new bank licences, capital markets regulator Sebi has also a job at hand that is of scrutinising all applicants coming under its jurisdiction directly or through group entities. Sebi's scrutiny follows detailed queries shot off by RBI to various regulators in India and abroad as part of its due-diligence of entities seeking to enter banking arena. According to a senior official, Sebi is looking into the capital market track-record of all the group entities of 26 banking aspirants, some of whom are either listed entities or have presence in Sebi-regulated businesses like mutual funds, brokerage and investment banks. The area of prime focus for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is action taken by or underway for violations to various market regulations, he added. The scrutiny is expected to be over this month itself. RBI is granting new bank licences for the first time in about a decade and preliminary screening process is underway for 26 entities that have submitted their applications. As part of this process, RBI has also asked the applicants to provide further details about their promoters, equity structure, financial inclusion programme, proposed banking model, among others, sources said. In addition to Sebi, RBI is also seeking details from other regulators such as insurance watchdog IRDA and pension regulator PFRDA, about the businesses of the applicant entities under their respective jurisdictions. With regard to some applicants, RBI has sought to know details about source of funds and compliance to the structural norms proposed for new banking players. Besides, RBI is seeking additional details from the concerned foreign regulators about those applicants whose group entities have operations, significant business dealings with foreign companies or overseas listings. Sources said this due diligence process involves information exchange with domestic and foreign regulatory authorities for all group entities of the applicants.

India's BSE index falls from nearly 3-year high; US debt deal key

BSE index falls 0.29 pct; NSE ends 0.39 pct lower * Indian shares snap 5-day winning streak * HDFC Bank posts slowest quarterly profit growth in a decade * Investors turn 'equal-weight' on India - Morgan Stanley survey By Abhishek Vishnoi MUMBAI, Oct 15 - India's benchmark index fell on Tuesday, retreating from a nearly three-year high hit earlier in the session, as blue chips declined ahead of the Oct. 17 deadline to lift the U.S. debt ceiling. Lenders also

NHPC's Rs 1,000 cr tax free bonds issue likely on Oct 15

Siliguri: State-run power producer NHPC is likely to hit the market with its maiden tax-free bonds issue worth Rs 1,000 crore on October 15.

For the issue, the company filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with capital market regulator Sebi on Monday.

"We are expecting to come out with Rs 1,000 crore tax-free bonds issue on October 15," NHPC Director (Finance) A B L Srivastava said.

The company would come out with the issue in a single tranche, he told reporters late on Monday.

For this fiscal, NHPC's construction budget is Rs 3,450 crore. Out of that amount, around Rs 1,831 crore is planned to be garnered by way of debt.

The country's largest hydro power is awaiting approvals for about ten projects having total capacity of 8,801 MW.

When asked about government selling stake in the company, Srivastava said it would be decided by the Department of Disinvestment.

The disinvestment is likely through the Offer for Sale (OFS) route, he added.

Mutual funds witness Rs 50,000 cr outflows in July

New Delhi: Investors pulled out a net amount of more than Rs 50,000 crore from various mutual fund schemes in July -- the highest outflow in five months.

The huge pull-out of funds during July followed a net withdrawal of Rs 48,403 crore in the preceding month, taking the total outflows for two consecutive months to close to Rs one lakh crore.

As per the latest data available with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the net outflow of Rs 50,067 crore during July was the highest withdrawal by investors in mutual fund (MF) schemes in a single month since March, when investors had redeemed Rs 1.08 lakh crore.

This has left the MFs' net mobilisation of funds from investors so far in the current fiscal (April-July) at about Rs 45,539 crore.

Mutual fund is an investment vehicle that is made up of a pool of funds collected from many investors for the purpose of investing in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments and similar assets.

At gross level, mutual funds mobilised Rs 7.8 lakh crore in July, but also witnessed redemption worth Rs 8.27 lakh crore -- resulting into a net outflow of Rs 50,067 crore.

This has brought down the total assets under management of mutual funds to Rs 7.6 lakh crore as on July 31, from Rs 8.11 lakh crore in the previous month.

The BSE's benchmark Sensex plunged by 232 points, or 1.2 percent, during the period under review.

"During the financial year 2013-14 so far (April-July), mutual funds net mobilised Rs 45,539 crore as compared to Rs 1,33,976 crore mobilised in corresponding period of 2012-13," Sebi noted.

In the entire fiscal 2012-13, mutual funds had garnered Rs 76,539 crore from investors while a net amount of over Rs 22,000 crore moved out of the mutual funds' kitty during the preceding year.

PTI