Sebi to rope in independent agencies to dispose of attached assets

To help it recover pending dues from defaulters, Sebi has decided to rope in independent agencies for conducting valuation and sale of assets attached by the capital markets watchdog.

Inviting bids from the interested parties, Sebi said it has been initiating proceedings against various defaulters for their failure to refund money to investors or failure to pay the penalty, fees and disgorgement money from time to time.

Sebi has been granted powers by the government to attach the assets of defaulters and it can prohibit such defaulters from disposing, transferring, alienating or creating any encumbrance on such assets.

The attached assets are required to be sold for recovering the dues and therefore Sebi has decided to empanel a maximum of five agencies, for a maximum tenure of five years to help the regulator in assessing the value of assets and selling them to the prospective buyers.

The selected agencies will be responsible for assisting the regulator "in valuation of attached assets and sale thereof to prospective buyers on behalf of Sebi in accordance with law".

The agencies will have to take steps to dispose the assets and obtain valuation of the properties in terms of market value or fair value and advise Sebi in the valuation which would help the regulator in deciding the reserve price for the proposed sale.

In addition, they will have to undertake all activities for conducting auction of the assets including drafting and publication of advertisements in newspapers, e-auction of immovable assets through their in-house mechanism, handing over of possession of the assets to the prospective buyers, among others.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said bids can be submitted by February 10, 2020.

Spelling out the eligibility criteria, Sebi said interested applicants should have a net worth of at least Rs 1 crore and should have annual turnover of at least Rs 5 crore for each of the last three financial years.

The agency should have office in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and also preferably have offices in all state capitals.