Bombay High Court Instructs SEBI To Disclose Exemption Letter For ICICI Securities

The court ordered the Securities and Exchange Board of India to disclose the letter which excused the company from the reverse book-building process for delisting

The NCLT is hearing another case where allegations have been made against ICICI Bank for inappropriately influencing shareholders to back the delisting of ICICI Securities. (Image Source: Unsplash)

Source : Unsplash

The Bombay High Court on Saturday instructed the capital markets regulator to reveal the exemption letter issued to ICICI Securities. The court ordered the Securities and Exchange Board of India to disclose the letter which excused the company from the reverse book-building process for delisting.

The court said that the regulator should provide this letter to an ICICI Securities shareholder, Aruna Vinod Modi, reported Moneycontrol. Notably, the shareholder challenged the exemption given to the firm. However, the court barred Modi from sharing, reproducing, or allowing any third party to inspect the letter.

Modi earlier argued that the regulator overstepped its authority by permitting the exemption for the company. She claimed that this decision stood in violation of the delisting regulations.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is hearing another case where allegations have been made against ICICI Bank for inappropriately influencing shareholders to back the delisting of ICICI Securities from the domestic stock exchanges. About 83.8 per cent of the public institutional shareholders and 32 per cent non-institutional shareholders have so far voted in support of the delisting of the entity.

The shareholders have expressed that public shareholders were contacted by ICICI Bank employees to convince them to place their vote in support of the delisting. This was done using a presentation to take advantage of the lack of expertise of the shareholders.

Reacting to these complaints, the markets regulator provided an administrative warning earlier this year. The regulator said, “The heightened outreach programme on the last day of voting citing holidays/weekend appears inappropriate.” The investors further claimed that some of the officials even made consistent calls and asked for voting screenshots from the shareholders. This resulted in the regulator issuing a warning to ICICI Bank wherein it asked the lender to improve its compliance standards, else there will be action initiated against it by SEBI.