Sebi changes rules
18 Aug 1999
The Securities and Exchange Board of India has eased the minimum limit of public issue offerings for information technology companies to 10 per cent from 25 per cent. The proviso: the issues must be worth at least Rs 50 crore and offer at least 20 lakh shares. Sebi feels that this would enthuse high net worth software companies to seek funds in India rather than issuing instruments abroad.
The Sebi board, which discussed the recommendations of the P K Kaul Committee on mutual fund trustees, has decided that trustees should now file transaction details for deals over Rs 1 lakh on a quarterly basis.
The foreign institutional investor registration guidelines have also been relaxed. The registration criteria for FII sub-accounts have been brought down from 50 investors to 20. The maximum limit for a single investor has been increased from 5 per cent to 10 per cent.
The recommendations of the S A Dave committee on collective investment schemes (plantations) have also been accepted by Sebi. The minimum net worth for a company that floats such a scheme will now be increased to Rs 5 crore from the current Rs 3 crore. The schemes that are currently operational will have to pay Rs.10 lakhs for provisional registration, increase their net worth to Rs 1 crore in a year and to Rs 5 crore in five years.