SEBI relaxes employee share allotment norms

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Friday decided to relax its regulations to enable employees to apply for shares over the Rs 200,000 limit.

At its meeting in Mumbai, the SEBI based on representations approved the proposal to allow allotment to employees in excess of Rs 2 lakh per employee under employee reservation quota.

"The application for shares of the value in excess of Rs 2 lakh shall be considered as application for additional shares and shall be considered only in the event of under-subscription in the employee reservation portion," the SEBI said in a statement.

According to SEBI, the unsubscribed shares available in the employee reservation portion shall be allotted on a proportionate basis to the employees who have applied for the additional shares.

Value of total allotment to an employee under the employee reservation portion, including the additional allotment shall not exceed Rs 5 lakh.

The SEBI also approved to initiate a public consultation on corporate governance issues in compensation agreements in case of listed companies.

The SEBI decided on this as instances of private equity funds entering into compensation agreements with promoters, directors and key managerial personnel of listed investee companies, based on performance of such companies without shareholders' approval.

The securities market regulator also decided to increase the limit of foreign investment in Indian stock exchanges by 10 per cent to 15 per cent and allow foreign portfolio investor to acquire shares of unlisted stock exchanges through transactions outside of recognised stock exchange including the initial allotment.

--IANS

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