Sebi to require more disclosure from person acting in concert

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) may soon require persons acting in concert to disclose their Permanent Account Numbers. The move is part of new transparency standards to be included in the listing regulations.

Sources in the know also indicate that board will also discuss regulations for uniform disclosure of share holding pattern and annual results to prevent selective leakage of price sensitive information.

The listing regulations are set to be tabled in the Sebi board meet on November 19. The listing agreement is currently a contract between the stock exchange and the company listing on it. Replacing the agreement with a regulation makes it more enforceable, Sebi chairman UK Sinha has previously said.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event Sebi Whole Time Member, Prashant Saran stated that the markets regulator is also revamping other parts of the listing agreement.

“To build trust, we are reviewing Clause 36 of the listing agreement under which corporates have to disclose non-events. We found that disclosures were just filling in the blanks till now. Under the new norms, corporates would be required to disclose non-events such as loss of market share or technology obsolescence on a periodic basis to share-holders through an exchange filing,” Saran added.

Recently at CII, industry body conference V S Sundaresan Chief General Manager, Sebi stated that they are moving towards a rule based environment.

“Clause 36 currently by and large is still a principle…We found instances at stock exchanges that companies were not disclosing specifics about company events as the disclosure requirements were being met only in principle,” said Sundaresan.

Securities and Exchange Board of India ( SEBI )