The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman, Ajay Tyagi, on Wednesday flagged concerns over the disclosures being made by listed companies.

“Disclosures by many companies are lacking in some areas. Documents as important as annual reports, financial results, should have the quality investors deserve. We request companies, management, to actively revisit their policies to ensure better disclosure of material events,” Tyagi said.

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Tyagi was also of the view that several companies were making disclosures to stock exchanges only after the news media had reported a story and the exchanges had sought clarification on it. He was hinting towards a more proactive approach from companies. He was talking at an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).

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Further, Tyagi said that independent directors have an important role and they should play a more active role in the management of the company. He said that he would request directors representing institutions to be the bulwark of corporate governance.

SPAC framework

Tyagi said that SEBI’s Primary Market Committee was deliberating if SPAC framework should be introduced in India. SPACs are nothing but special purpose acquisition companies with no commercial operations but formed strictly to raise capital through initial public offerings. In the US, SPAC listings are sought after by companies wanting to raise funds and even institutional investors. SPAC was recently allowed on the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) , which is a Gujarat-based offshore trading platform.

Among other things, Tyagi said that debt market in India needs to develop the way equity markets are today and the framework for the minimum public shareholding was revised to make it easier for large companies to do IPOs. Also, the focus on the review of equity fundraising norms will continue in the future.

“ETFs have become 9 per cent of asset under management (AUM) of mutual funds from 3 per cent a few years ago. We are spending a lot of time and energy within SEBI on the IT side. It is for the government to take a view on having a super-regulator,” Tyagi said.

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