Sebi slaps Rs 24 lakh on Amtek Auto for disclosure lapses

Markets regulator Sebi Friday imposed a total penalty of Rs 24 lakh on Amtek Auto for failing to disclose the invocation of pledge shares in the matter of Castex Technologies.

As per the order, Amtek Auto is the promoter of Castex Technologies Ltd (CTL).

The regulator conducted a probe between March 2015 and September 2015 in the scrip of CTL and found that Amtek had pledged 8.15 crore shares during the September 2015 quarter.

Besides, Amtek had pledged shares of CTL on five other occasions also.

The regulator said Amtek was duty-bound to disclose the six transactions of invocation of pledge of the shares within seven working days to the stock exchanges and CTL under SAST (Substantial Acquisition of shares and Taekovers) norms and insider trading regulations.

Besides, during the December 2015 quarter, the holding of Amtek changed from 36.01 per cent to 3.636 per cent which required the firm to disclose to the CTL and exchanges under SAST and insider trading norms.

However, on both the occasions, it failed to do so, said the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). Thereby, the regulator violated SAST and insider Trading norms, it said.

Accordingly, a fine of Rs 20 lakh was imposed on Amtek Auto for violating SAST norms and Rs 4 lakh for insider trading norms.

In a separate order, Sebi barred Sharex Dynamic India Pvt Ltd from accepting any fresh client for one month for violating RTA (Registrars to an Issue and Share Transfer Agent) regulations.

According to the order, an inspection of the books of accounts of Sharex was conducted by an auditor appointed by Sebi, for the financial years 2013-14 to 2015-16.

The auditors found that RTA agent, Sharex had processed transfer of shares, despite significant mismatch between the signature of transferor and his specimen signature.

Moreover, it had processed transfer of shares without having specimen signature record.

By doing so, Sharex violated relevant circulars and RTA norms, Sebi said.

Accordingly, "I hereby direct that the Noticee i.e. Sharex Dynamic (India) Pvt Ltd stands prohibited from accepting any fresh clients for a period of one month from the date of this order," Sebi's whole-time member G Mahalingam said.