Sebi wants to fast-track disclosure by companies

In a consultative paper issued on Monday, the capital markets regulator has proposed amendments to the Sebi (Prohibition of Insider trading) Regulations, 1992, under which the time gap between the date of transaction and the date of dissemination of the information by the stock exchange may be reduced from nine days to two working days.

This would make it mandatory for a person to report the transactions within one working day of trading to the company and the company, in turn, should inform the exchanges within one day. The proposals are open for public comments till June 30.

"In order to have an efficient market, it is essential that all relevant information which has an impact on the price of the shares of a company is promptly disseminated to the market," said Sebi.

Under the present Sebi (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 1992, the shareholder/director/officer of a listed company must disclose to the company information regarding the shareholding or voting rights within four working days of receipt of intimation of allotment of shares or the acquisition or sale of shares or voting rights or of becoming the director or officer of that company.

The company, in turn, must disclose to the stock exchanges on which the company is listed, within five days. This means that sometimes it may take up to nine days to make the price sensitive information known to the public.

"The rationale for the said disclosure is diluted over the nine days period provided for it," said Sebi.

This amendment follows a consultative paper put out by Sebi in March on amendments to Sebi (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 1992.

The paper had proposed that transaction disclosures made under either Sebi (Prohibition of Insider Trading) regulations, 1992 or Sebi (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) regulations, 1997 should be considered good disclosure under the other.

This was proposed to cut down on the repetition in disclosures that listed companies have to make each time.

Sebi was investigating trading in Reliance Petroleum (RPL) stock on the bourses relating to the sale of 4.01 per cent in the company by parent Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries last November.

RIL sold 4.01 per cent (180.4 million shares) stake in RPL for Rs 4023 crore, riding high on the massive run-up in the subsidiaries' share prices during the time.