Sebi for tracking of IPO bank guarantee

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked stock exchanges to set up a system to track bank guarantees kept by issuer companies with them.

Currently, as per Clause 42 of the listing agreement (disclosure and investor protection) guidelines 2000, issuer companies need to keep with the designated exchanges a security deposit of 1 per cent of the amount that they are raising through the public issue. This is to ensure compliance by the company with all legal requirements.

As per this clause, 50 per cent of the security deposit shall be paid to the exchange in cash and the balance can be provided through a bank guarantee. The security deposit is given back to the issuer companies within three months, if there are no investor complaints.

However, sources indicate that it takes six months to one year in many cases for issuer companies to get back the security deposit as investor complaints drag on. By then, the bank guarantees expire and, as a result, exchanges end up holding less than 1 per cent. The security deposit is used to address issues such as non-receipt of shares by investors and other complaints related to the IPO process.

In order to avoid this, Sebi has asked stock exchanges to recoup immediately any shortfall in the security deposit caused by expiry of such bank guarantees by taking either cash or fresh/re-validated bank guarantees from issuer companies.

The market regulator has also asked stock exchanges to put in place a system to keep track of bank guarantees. “The said system should generate alerts at least one month prior to the expiry of such bank guarantees, so that stock exchanges have sufficient time to require the issuer companies to provide fresh/renewed bank guarantees…,” Sebi said.

The market regulator has also directed bourses to invoke these bank guarantees before they expire, if any issuer company fails to satisfy the shortfall in the security deposit either by cash or by fresh/renewed bank guarantees within the time frame despite intimation from the stock exchange.