Sebi expedites IPO clearing process

Time taken to clear documents less than three months

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had sped up the process to clear offer documents for initial public offerings (IPOs), an official said on Monday. 

“After the rejection framework was introduced, Sebi has taken less than three months to clear offer documents,” said Sebi Chief General Manager V S Sundaresan. “Sebi takes only the time required to clear offer documents, unlike the market perception that the documents get stuck at our end.” Sundaresan said Sebi had been keeping pace with reforms and market demands. 

Under the new framework, Sebi can now reject offer documents that do not have adequate disclosures or do not meet the requirements laid down by it. Because of this rule, Sundaresan said, the quality of disclosures had improved significantly. 

So far, Sebi has not rejected any offer document. “There has been only one case where we attempted to invoke that rejection framework,” Sundaresan said.

Despite a 30 per cent rally this year, the primary market continues to be in doldrums. So far in 2014, only five companies have launched IPOs, to raise a total of around Rs 1,200 crore, the lowest in more than a decade. At present, less than 20 offer documents have been filed with Sebi for approval to launch IPOs.