Securities Appellate Tribunal allows Sasken's 12-month buyback plan
06 Sep 2008
Mumbai: The Securities Appellate Tribunal has allowed Sasken Communication to go ahead with its share buy-back plan and stayed a SEBI condition that required Sasken to place buy order on a daily or weekly basis.
In it ruling the SAT said the Securities and Exchange Board of India cannot insist that Sasken must exhaust the limit of Rs40 crore and can proceed with the buyback till it is finally disposed of the case on 16 September.
The chairman of SAT, in his ruling, said the Sebi move might increase market speculation which it was supposed to manage.
SEBI also cannot curtail Sasken's 12-month buyback window nor would it be able to subject Sasken to buy back on a weekly basis, SAT said in its ruling.
Bangalore based telecom software services provider Sasken Communication had moved SAT seeking permission to proceed with its Rs40 crore buyback, for which market regulator SEBI was yet to give its approval.
Sasken had in April announced a buyback of its equity shares of Rs10 each from the open market at Rs260 per share for an aggregate amount of Rs40 crore.
The scheme was to open on 5 May 2008 and close on 17 April 2009.
SAT, however, said it needed to study the issue in detail and set 16 September as date of final hearing.