Sebi fines Dalal Street Investments Rs 10 lakh for disclosure lapses

Markets regulator Sebi Monday imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Pune-based Dalal Street Investments for failing to comply with disclosure requirements regarding the promoters' shareholding pattern to the exchange.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) fined the company for violating the listing agreement norms.

It conducted an examination from September 2008 to July 2009 for alleged irregularity in the dealings of Street Investments, the regulator said in an order.

During the probe, the regulator found that there were five companies which were related to Street Investments by the way of common directors and the five firms under the public holding category were holding more than 97 per cent of the share capital.

Under the listing agreement norms, the five firms fall under the term of promoters and hence Street Investments had filed misleading shareholding information with the BSE, the regulator noted.

Besides, the firm failed to include the holding of one of the five firms under the promoter category in revised quarterly filings from October 2009, Sebi added.

The company "by making wrong disclosure with regard to the shareholding pattern of its promoters during the period March 2002 and September 2009 had violated the provisions... Listing Agreement," Sebi said.

Accordingly, the Sebi has imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Dalal Street Investments.

In a separate order, Sebi has imposed a fine of Rs 6 lakh on Praveen Agarwal HUF for indulging in reversal trades and thereby created artificial volume of trading in the shares of Pressman Securities.

By executing reversal trades, the entity violated PFUTP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trading Practices). Therefore, it is liable for monetary penalty, the regulator noted.