Sebi disposes of case against 10 entities in Vaswani Ind IPO

Market regulator Sebi today dismissed allegations of fraudulent trade practices against 10 entities in a case related to Vaswani Industries' initial public offer.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in its show cause notice had alleged the entities of making bids in the initial public offer (IPO) of Vaswani Industries at the upper price level and then withdrawing the same with an intent to artificially inflate the bid book and create an interest for other investors to subscribe in the issue.

However in its order today, Sebi said that "withdrawal of said bids by the noticees (10 entities), cannot be considered to have been placed in order to create the misleading appearance of bids in the IPO by any act/practices...".

"Hereby conclude that the alleged violations do not stand established against all the Noticees," Sebi said.

The entities against whom the case has been "disposed of" are -- Vinodkumar Bajaj & Company HUF, Bajaj Commodities Trading, Ramniwas Bajaj & Company HUF, Bajaj Consultants, Bajaj Retail India Venture, Rajkamal Ramniwas Bajaj, Vinodkumar Ramviwas Bajaj, Bajco Consultants, Bajaj Shares and Stock Brokers and Gopal Maskara.

The market watchdog noted that the entities were not the only investors who had withdrawn the bids and that the bids "which were made only on the last day of IPO (May 3, 2011) that too after 1:30 p.M. - 2.45 p.M, can influence other investors to bid in the said IPO", among others.

The case relates to Sebi probe into alleged irregularity of Vaswani Industries IPO for the period from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012.

The bidding for the issue started on April 29, 2011 and closed on May 3, 2011.