Sebi shifts focus to PSUs on minimum holding norms

  After cracking its whip on 105 private sector companies that failed to meet minimum public holding norms, market regulator Sebi has turned its focus to about a dozen PSUs that need to comply with these regulations in next 60 days with sale of shares worth about Rs 3,600 crore.
At the same time, Sebi is also considering further actions against the non-compliant private sector companies, in addition to the orders passed against them last week.

Such actions might include monetary penalties and initiation of adjudication proceedings and a final call on this would be taken by the end of this month after receipt of responses from the companies against whom an interim order was passed on 4 June.
At the same time, Sebi has begun the process of sending reminders to about a dozen listed PSUs that are yet to attain a minimum public shareholding of 10 per cent by 8 August, a senior official said.

In these reminders, the companies are being asked to initiate steps to achieve this requirement through sale of shares by the promoter, which is the government or state-owned entities in this case, and inform Sebi about such measures.
Besides, Sebi is also informing these companies about the actions that might be taken against them for non-compliance to this requirement by 8 August.

Just like the private sector entities, the PSUs are also unlikely to get any respite in terms of the deadline, a Sebi official said, adding that the government has already assured it about the compliance within the prescribed timeframe. The PSUs that need to lower their promoter holdings to 90 per cent or below to meet the guidelines include Andrew Yule & Company, Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd, Haryana Financial Corp Ltd, Hindustan Copper, HMT, India Tourism Development Corp, ITI Ltd, MMTC.