SAT quashes Sebi’s ban on DLF by 2-1 majority; Chair dissents
14 March 2015 1:55 AM GMT
Sebi’s orders imposing similar ban on DLF’s six top officials, including Chairman K P Singh and his children Rajiv Singh and Pia Singh, were also set aside by the same majority order, passed by two members of the SAT.
The SAT Presiding Officer, J P Devadhar, however passed a separate ‘minority’ order, wherein he proposed reducing the ban from three years to six months.
Amid an unprecedented argument between Presiding Officer and one of the Members, Devadhar pronounced another direction for staying the operation of the SAT order for a period of four weeks “in view of the conflicting views in the matter’, but another majority order by the two members again rejected Sebi’s plea for stay on the first ‘majority decision’. In its order dated October 10, 2014, Sebi had barred DLF and six others from the capital markets for three years, alleging “active and deliberate suppression of material facts” during its over Rs 9,000-crore IPO more than seven years ago.
While DLF has already gone through five months of debarment, the SAT order will help it tap the markets for raising necessary funds for business, including through REITs and mortgage-backed securities. Welcoming the order, DLF Executive Director Rajeev Talwar said that any further decision on fund raising from the markets would be taken after the company’s board is apprised of the matter by the legal counsel and experts. DLF shares soared higher by about 10 per cent immediately after the Sebi order was quashed by SAT. The stock finally closed with a gain of 6 per cent at Rs 157.5 at the BSE.
In their strongly-worded majority order running into 85 pages, the two SAT Members -- Jog Singh and A S Lamba -- ruled that Sebi “has completely failed to approach the issue in the matter pragmatically. “Viewed from any angle, the impugned order is like a troubled sea whose waters only cast up mire and dust and, therefore, the same is liable to be quashed and set aside.”
They also pulled up Sebi for lapses in its investigation into the case, while stating that it was the job of merchant bankers to ensure proper disclosures in IPO documents. The order also said DLF suffered huge losses, to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees, in its market value after Sebi’s ban, and therefore such directions could not be seen as those aimed at protecting the investors’ interest.
Scrip towers by over 6%; MCap up by Rs1,524 cr
Shares of DLF surged over 6 per cent, adding Rs1,524.36 crore to its market value, after the Securities Appellate Tribunal on Friday passed a ‘majority order’ quashing the three-year market ban
imposed on the realty giant by regulator Sebi.
The stock soared 5.74 per cent to settle at Rs 157.50 on the BSE. During the day, it surged 9.16 per cent to Rs 162.60. On the NSE, shares of DLF jumped 6.19 per cent to end at Rs 158.70. In the process, the company’s market value rose by Rs 1,524.36 crore to Rs 28,065.36 crore. In terms of volume, 39.94 lakh shares of the company changed hands at the BSE and over two crore shares were traded at the NSE.
The SAT Presiding Officer, J P Devadhar, however passed a separate ‘minority’ order, wherein he proposed reducing the ban from three years to six months.
Amid an unprecedented argument between Presiding Officer and one of the Members, Devadhar pronounced another direction for staying the operation of the SAT order for a period of four weeks “in view of the conflicting views in the matter’, but another majority order by the two members again rejected Sebi’s plea for stay on the first ‘majority decision’. In its order dated October 10, 2014, Sebi had barred DLF and six others from the capital markets for three years, alleging “active and deliberate suppression of material facts” during its over Rs 9,000-crore IPO more than seven years ago.
While DLF has already gone through five months of debarment, the SAT order will help it tap the markets for raising necessary funds for business, including through REITs and mortgage-backed securities. Welcoming the order, DLF Executive Director Rajeev Talwar said that any further decision on fund raising from the markets would be taken after the company’s board is apprised of the matter by the legal counsel and experts. DLF shares soared higher by about 10 per cent immediately after the Sebi order was quashed by SAT. The stock finally closed with a gain of 6 per cent at Rs 157.5 at the BSE.
In their strongly-worded majority order running into 85 pages, the two SAT Members -- Jog Singh and A S Lamba -- ruled that Sebi “has completely failed to approach the issue in the matter pragmatically. “Viewed from any angle, the impugned order is like a troubled sea whose waters only cast up mire and dust and, therefore, the same is liable to be quashed and set aside.”
They also pulled up Sebi for lapses in its investigation into the case, while stating that it was the job of merchant bankers to ensure proper disclosures in IPO documents. The order also said DLF suffered huge losses, to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees, in its market value after Sebi’s ban, and therefore such directions could not be seen as those aimed at protecting the investors’ interest.
Scrip towers by over 6%; MCap up by Rs1,524 cr
Shares of DLF surged over 6 per cent, adding Rs1,524.36 crore to its market value, after the Securities Appellate Tribunal on Friday passed a ‘majority order’ quashing the three-year market ban
imposed on the realty giant by regulator Sebi.
The stock soared 5.74 per cent to settle at Rs 157.50 on the BSE. During the day, it surged 9.16 per cent to Rs 162.60. On the NSE, shares of DLF jumped 6.19 per cent to end at Rs 158.70. In the process, the company’s market value rose by Rs 1,524.36 crore to Rs 28,065.36 crore. In terms of volume, 39.94 lakh shares of the company changed hands at the BSE and over two crore shares were traded at the NSE.
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