Sebi okays Cipla's voting rights proposal

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has given its approval to Cipla’s proposal to allow the promoters of the company to exercise voting rights as a single unit. In an informal guidance issued by Sebi, the regulator said that the company would be allowed provided that all conditions in the Takeover code regulations are complied with. The letter in particular refers to regulation 10, which deals with entities related to the promoter group who are exempt from making an open offer.

“The proposed agreement provides for the promoters and promoter group acting jointly as a single unit for the purpose of exercising voting rights under the direction and supervision of Mr Y K Hamied. This implies that Mr Y K Hamied would be the single largest holder of voting rights in the target company,” said the Sebi guidance.

The request for approval relates to a letter written by Hamied in October 2014 to Sebi seeking clarification on the exercise of voting rights by the promoter group. Sebi filed a reply on February 2014. But owing to a request made by the company promoters to maintain confidentiality, the regulator chose to keep the matter under wraps for 90 days.