Sebi imposes Rs 15 lakh fine on Castex Technologies, Metalyst Forgings for disclosure lapses

Markets regulator Sebi Friday levied a total penalty of Rs 15 lakh on Castex Technologies and Metalyst Forgings for disclosure lapses regarding pledged shares.

According to the order, Metalyst Forgings Ltd was the promoter of Castex Technologies Ltd at the the time of violation.

The penalty on the entities follows an investigation by the regulator regarding the number of shares pledged by Metalyst Forgings from March 2015 to September 2015.

Pursuant to the probe, the regulator found that Metalyst Forgings, a promoter of Castex Technologies, had pledged its scrips to various banks in the year 2015.

However, the information provided by depositories regarding the number of pledged shares did not match with that provided by Metalyst Forgings, Sebi said.

The incorrect disclosures made by Metalyst Forgings were violative of SAST (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) norms, the regulator said.

Similarly, Castex Technologies failed to disclose the correct information regarding the number of shares pledged by Metalyst Forgings.

"Noticee 1 (Castex) has not made correct disclosures, with respect to the shares pledged by its promoter i.e. Metalyst Forgings," the regulator said.

By doing so, Castex Technologies contravened listing agreements, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said.

"... filing of incorrect disclosure by the Noticees (Castex and Metalyst) have resulted in giving a wrong picture of the shareholding of promoter entities to the market and thus misleading to the general investors," Sebi said.

Accordingly, a fine of Rs 5 lakh was imposed on Castex Technologies and Rs 10 lakh on Metalyst Forgings.