Investor Supreme, Says Sebi Chief

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman D R Mehta has reiterated that the investor is the touchstone for all its decisions.

At the Ficci forum where leading industrialists expressed their views on the takeover code, Mehta said that safeguarding interests of minority shareholders is more important than those involved in buying or selling out companies.

"The regulator will ensure that the interests of minority shareholders will be defended. They should get the best price in any such deal. The pricing of the issue there fore becomes very crucial."

He also stated that Sebi would have no say in the role that financial institutions and banks can play during a takeover bid.

 

"It is out of the purview of Sebi to dictate terms to institutions and the decision solely rests with the managements such institutions."

Recommendations of the Justice Bhagwati committee report would be in place by the end of this month, Mehta said. He also clarified doubts put forward by the participants at the seminar.

He said that the decision to retain 10 per cent of the shares as a "threshold limit" was a balanced one as increase in the number of takeovers was a good omen for the investors.

He clarified that the reason for not increasing the minimum offer limit beyond 20 per cent was that the Indian corporates do not have the necessary funding support.