Sebi cancels Knack Corporate's share transfer agent licence

Capital markets regulator Sebi today cancelled the registration of Knack Corporate Services Pvt Ltd as a share transfer agent for violating norms and not carrying out its obligations in an "ethical and professional manner".
The violations were noticed by Securities and Exchange Board of India after it carried out an inspection of the entity during the period from January 2008 to November 2010.
The regulator said it has cancelled the "certificate of registration granted to Knack Corporate Services Ltd as a Registrar to an Issue (RTI) and Share Transfer Agent (STA)".
"I am convinced that the noticee (Knack Corporate Services) had not maintained high standards of integrity and fairness in the conduct of its business.

"The noticee had failed to exercise due diligence and proper care and to fulfil its obligations in a prompt, ethical and professional manner," Sebi Whole Time Member S Raman said in an order.
The entity failed to co-operate with the inspection team and submit the documents apart from not responding to the show cause notice issued to it, Sebi added.

According to Sebi, Knack Corporate Services' registration had expired in May 2013 and since then no application for permanent or renewal of registration has been received.
Sebi found that the company had only three full time employees for operation of its RTI & STA activities.

"Out of the three full-time employees, only two were directly handling the day-to-day RTI & STA activities as the third person was in-charge of the company's accounts," it noted.
Without having any key personnel with experience in computer software/hardware, the entity acted as a registrar to the rights issue of Ram Kashyap Investments Ltd, the order said.