Capital markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday said its actions against auditors for faulty audits are within its “Parliamentary mandate”, and there is no question of “turf wars” on this issue.
SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi said the watchdog is working only to protect the interests of investors and limiting its actions to auditors of publicly listed firms.
In 2018, the regulator banned Price Waterhouse for two years from auditing any listed firm for its role in the Satyam Computer Services scam. However, the audit firm had successfully challenged the same in the Securities Appellate Tribunal and got the order quashed.
“It is our parliamentary mandate I would say to see that it is done and there is no trouble there. It goes to the basic issue of investor protection being the parliamentary mandate of Sebi,” he noted.
In November, the Supreme Court stayed a SAT order which had held that Sebi does not have the power to bar auditors.
“Our position is very simple — if they’re auditing listed companies based on which investors are investing, and if we find that that work has not been done properly and in investors’ interest, some audit firms should not be allowed to audit for sometime of the listed companies,” Tyagi said at an event here.
According to Tyagi, audit firms are important gatekeepers who help companies put out results and financial performance to the stock exchanges, based on which investors take the call whether to invest or not.
“It is not our case that Sebi is the agency which registers or regulates the auditors. It is nothing like that… We are not de-registering auditors. We don’t have the authority and we don’t wish to have that authority,” he said.
He also made it clear that Sebi’s expectation is that faulty audits should not lead to inflated profits or dividends.
Regarding IPO market, Tyagi said there has been an improvement in activities lately and that nearly a dozen issues of over Rs 15,000 crore are in the pipeline.
The regulator has given its wish-list for the budget to the finance ministry, includes ways to increase the activities in the corporate bond market, he said.
Amid SEBI banning as many as 239 entities for alleged money laundering, taxation consultancy PwC has called for a three-year locking-in for the entire pre-listing capital held by promoters to curb tax evasion and other illegal activities through market platforms.
The agency has called for imposing a similar lock-in even for preferential allotments, as prescribed under the capital and disclosure requirement (ICDR) norms so that only serious investors access the market. The PwC report is part of a BSE-mandated review of SME listing process.
The premier bourse last week said that 100 entities were trading on its SME platform. The regulator Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) on June 29 banned four publicly traded SMEs and 235 other related entities for alledgely misusing the exchange’s platform for money laundering and tax evasion.
The SEBI, in an interim order alleged that these entities made Rs 614 crore in illegal gains through suspected money laundering and tax evasion activities. The four companies banned are EcoFriendly Food Processing Park, Esteem Bio Organic Food Processing, Channel Nine Entertainment and HPC Biosciences. These are traded on the BSE SME Platform.
“The institutional trading platform (ITP) could be utilised as a tool for tax planning by staying invested in an SME for a period more than 12 months and exiting at a very high stock price thereby making huge gains with no tax liability,” PwC said in the report.
Accordingly, the report has suggested that the entire pre-listing capital held by promoters should be locked in for three years as “such restrictive conditions would discourage people from accessing the platform only for tax planning”. The BSE had launched ITP for its SME platform to facilitate start-ups and other SMEs to list without the mandatory IPO process which is time-consuming and capital intensive that small companies can hardly afford.
According to PTI, in addition to allowing SMEs and start-up companies to raise capital, the BSE SME platrfom also provides easier entry and exit options for informed investors like angel investors, venture capitalists and private equity players, apart from offering better visibility and wider investor base and tax benefits to long-term investors.
Meanwhile, the report also called for a reduction in trading lot size and shorter interval for review of lot size after many SMEs, merchant bankers and market-makers cited this as a disincentive for entering the market. The report said market participants want the timeframe to review the lot size to be reduced from the current six months and lower the trading lot requirement of Rs 1 lakh to attract retail investors to the segment.
As SEBI continues to make business easier, it is important SMEs do not eye illegal gains through suspected money laundering and tax evasion activities.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday eased several rules relating to Initial Public Offers (IPO), rights issues, buybacks and takeovers. The regulator’s board approved these changes as also those relating tenures of managing directors of market intermediaries. The capital markets watchdog reduced the time for announcing the price band of initial […]The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Thursday eased several rules relating to Initial Public Offers (IPO), rights issues, buybacks and takeovers.
The regulator’s board approved these changes as also those relating tenures of managing directors of market intermediaries. The capital markets watchdog reduced the time for announcing the price band of initial public offers (IPO) from five working days before the opening of the issue to two working days. This will give companies more time to fix the price band.
Companies now need to provide investors with financial disclosures — for public issues and rights issues — for only three years. Currently, information is provided in the offer documents for five years. Also, companies need to provide only consolidated audited financial disclosures in the IPO offer document; audited standalone financials of the issuer and subsidiaries must be disclosed on the company website.
Following a board meeting on Thursday, the capital markets regulator tweaked the buyback norms. The buyback period has been defined as the time between the board resolution or the date of declaration of results for a special resolution authorizing the buyback of shares and the day on which the shares are paid.
Also, Sebi has amended the takeover rules. It has given companies additional time to revise the open offer price upwards till one working day before the start the tendering period.
The Sebi board also approved some recommendations of R Gandhi committee on regulations relating to market infrastructure institutions (MIIs). For rights issues the threshold for submission of the draft letter of offer to Sebi has been increased to Rs.10 crore as against the earlier prescribed Rs 50 lakh. The regular also tweaked the rules relating to the underwriting of all non-SME public issues. If 90% of the fresh issue of share is subscribed, the underwriting will be restricted to that portion only. Accordingly, the requirement to underwrite 100% of the issue without regard to the minimum subscription requirements has been deleted.
Sebi also reduced minimum anchor investor size to Rs 2 crore from the existing Rs 10 crore, for SME issuances. This will allow companies to attract more anchor investors for an issue.
The board has permitted eligible domestic and foreign entities to hold up to 15% shareholding in case of Depository and Clearing Corporation. Moreover, multilateral and bilateral financial institutions, as notified by the government, have also been recommended to hold up to 15% in an MII. Moreover, Sebi has decided to limit the tenure of managing directors of an MII for a for a maximum of two terms of up to 5 years each or up to 65 years of age, whichever is earlier. The requirement would also apply to incumbent MDs of MIIs.
The regulator is also looking into the issues regarding IPO ICICI Securities in ICIC AMC bought the large stake.The regulator had sought details of a significant investment made by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund in the IPO of ICICI Securities. “Yes we are looking into that, and we have sought some information from them, and we are yet to get their replies,” Tyagi said.
The number of small and medium enterprises listed on BSE and NSE platforms is expected to reach 1,000 in the next two years from nearly 350 at present, leading merchant banker Guiness Corporate Advisory Services said today.
More companies will tap the initial public offer (IPO) route for business expansion plans, to support working capital requirements and other general corporate purposes.
In the entire 2017, 132 SMEs raised a record Rs 1,785 crore through IPOs, much higher than 66 firms that garnered Rs 540 crore in 2016.
Besides, 2017 witnessed more fund-raising than aggregate capital garnered in past five years cumulatively. Overall, the firms mopped up Rs 1,315 crore in the last five years.
“Both the exchanges (BSE and NSE) have already listed nearly 350 SMEs in the last couple of years and this number will definitely reach to 1,000 during the next two years,” Guiness said in a statement.
The firms will be from various sectors such as media and entertainment, manufacturing, textiles, engineering, finance, chemicals, agriculture, food processing and construction.
“SMEs have very well embraced the idea of raising equity through IPO route in the last couple of years. There has been a phenomenal change, as they were perennially dependent on debt for their working capital and expansion plans in the past. This change will be a game changer for the growth of the SMEs in the country,” the merchant banker said.
BSE and NSE launched SME platforms in March 2012, becoming the only two bourses to offer such a segment in the country. Since then, more than 300 companies have got listed on these platforms.
“SMEs have really got benefited from this platform, we are encouraging more SMEs to come out with IPO. This would remain a great source of funds. Many listed SMEs have also moved to main board exchanges because of their growth in the last couple of years. This is also a good gateway for eventually get listed on the main platform of the exchanges,” BSE SME Head Ajay Thakur said.
As many as 117 companies have garnered a staggering Rs 62,736 crore through IPOs in the first eight months of Financial Year 2017-18, much higher than the cumulative amount raised in the last five fiscals, Parliament was informed on Friday.
These 117 initial public offers (IPOs) include 28 main- board public offers and the remaining for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Minister of State for Finance Pon Radhakrishnan said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.
During April-November of 2017-18 fiscal, a total of 117 companies raised Rs 62,736 crore through IPO route. This was much more than the cumulative amount of Rs 62,147 crore garnered in the last five financial years.
Besides, the ongoing fiscal has witnessed the highest IPO activity since 2007-08, when companies had mopped up Rs 52,219 crore through the route.
The IPO chart in this fiscal is led by General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) that garnered over Rs 11,176 crore. This was the largest public float by any firm after the October 2010 offer by Coal India which raised Rs 15,000 crore.
GIC is followed by New India Assurance Company that raised Rs 9,467 crore, HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company (Rs 8,695 crore) SBI Life Insurance Company (Rs 8,386 crore) and ICICI Lombard General Insurance (Rs 5,700 crore).
Individually, a total of 106 firms had garnered Rs 29,104 crore in the entire 2016-17, while 74 companies had raised Rs 14,185 crore in 2015-16.
Further, 46 firms had mopped up Rs 3,039 crore in 2014- 15, 40 companies had raised Rs 8,692 crore in 2013-14 and 33 firms had raked in Rs 6,497 crore in 2012-13.
Companies and financial institutions have mopped up close to Rs 56,000 crore by way of fund-raising through equities so far in 2017. This is about 20% higher than the amount of Rs 46,733 crore raised in 2016.
Companies and financial institutions have mopped up close to Rs 56,000 crore by way of fund-raising through equities so far in 2017. This is about 20% higher than the amount of Rs 46,733 crore raised in 2016. The fund-raising has been helped by a booming stock market; the Sensex has gained by 22% in the year so far.
On Monday, the benchmark gauge closed at 32,514.94.The Nifty has put on 23.10% in 2017 closing Monday’s session at 10,077.10.Since the beginning of the year, firms have mopped up Rs 55,905 crore through initial public offerings (IPO), offers for sale (OFS), Qualified Institutional Placements (QIP), and rights issues among others, data from Prime Database showed.
A significant portion — close to 61% — of the total equity raised this year has been by way of QIPs at Rs 34,182 crore. State Bank of India (SBI)’s Rs 15,000 crore offer has been the biggest in 2017 so far — the lender had issued around 52.21 crore new shares at a price of Rs 287.25.
The issue was aimed at augmenting the bank’s capital adequacy ratio and for general corporate purposes.This is the highest in the past eleven years. Banks constituted 84% of the amount raised through QIPs.
Market participants said the need for Tier 1 capital and the necessity to meet Basel III requirements as the reasons for banks opting for QIPs.
After QIPs, the maximum amount of money was raised through IPOs in 2017.
In 2017, companies raised Rs 14,026 crore through IPOs. Listing gains and returns by newly listed companies as also the positive sentiment in the broader market are among the reasons attributed to the trend.
BSE, HUDCO, CDSL, Avenue Supermarts, Shankara Building Products and S Chand and Company are some of the companies who completed their IPOs in the last seven months.
The newly listed companies have given good returns to investors, the BSE IPO index a gauge of newly listed companies rose by 40% year to date.
Small enterprises raised Rs 716 crore through SME IPOs, this is the highest since 2012.
Market participants said the buoyancy in the primary market is set to continue with more than a dozen companies gearing up to hit the market with their offerings.
PE, Venture Capital flows up 155% in May to $ 3 billion; SoftBank – Paytm deal tops
Private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) investments have recorded the highest monthly investments in the past 10 years at $3.1 billion in May 2017. For the third consecutive month in a year, the investment flow crossed the $2-billion mark.
The financial services sector topped the table on account of the $1.4-billion investment by Softbank in Paytm. This deal accounted 46 per cent of aggregate deal value for the month.
According to Ernst & Young (EY) data, the month recorded a 264 per cent increase in terms of value and 23 per cent in volume over May 2016. PE/VCs have invested $3,064 million across 55 deal in May this year as against $843 million across 45 deals in May 2016.
There were five deals of more than $100 million aggregating to $2.3 billion, accounting for 75 per cent of the aggregate deal value in May 2017.
Another important deal during the month was the $500-million investment by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in Indospace (a real estate platform for industrial and logistics parks) for a majority stake, thus taking the investments by Canadian pension funds in 2017 close to $2 billion.
Mayank Rastogi, partner and leader for PE, EY said that Indian PE/VC market has significantly matured over time. Five to seven years ago, the classic growth capital was the only meaningful capital pool available with limitations such as investment horizon and return expectations, and could not have suited some specific situations.
There are a variety of capital pools available ranging from angel/VC to buyout funds, family offices, pensions and sovereigns, corporate funds, debt funds, sector-focused funds providing solutions that address specific needs. This is one of the key drivers for continuing buoyancy in the PE/VC investments in India despite slow growth capital investing.
Financial services ($1.6 billion across 11 deals) emerged as the most active sector on account of the Paytm-Softbank deal, the largest deal in the financial services sector till date. The real estate sector bagged four deals worth $709 million, followed by e-commerce sector’s six deals worth $211 million in terms of activity.
May 2017 recorded $1 billion in exits and was the second consecutive month with more than $1 billion in exits.
The strong buyout trend established over the past two years continued into 2017 with $2 billion invested across 18 deals till date.
Between January and May, there was a significant increase of over 60 per cent compared to 2016 and over 100 per cent compared to 2015, both, in terms of value and volume.
Debt deals recorded the biggest monthly volume since 2014 with $377 million recorded across 12 deals.
Given the buoyancy in the public markets, open market deals emerged as the preferred mode of exit, accounting for 36 per cent of exits by value and 50 per cent by volume, similar to the trend seen in the previous month.
Till date, open market exits have accounted for 49 per cent of the total value of exits in 2017 compared to 25 per cent for the whole of 2016. May 2017 recorded $90 million in fund raise, a decline of 82 per cent and 76 per cent as compared to May 2016 and April 2017 respectively. The plans for fund raise announced during the month stood at $908 million.
There was one PE-backed initial public offering (IPO) in May 2017 (S Chand, a publishing company, primarily in the education space), which saw Everstone exiting a 13.9 per cent stake for $48 million. Till May 2017, PE-backed IPO tally stands at four compared to eight during the same period in 2016.
Financial services emerged as the leading sector with exits worth $466 million across six deals followed by the healthcare sector with exits worth $260 million across three deals.
Capital markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday said its actions against auditors for faulty audits are within its “Parliamentary mandate”, and there is no question of “turf wars” on this issue.
