Sebi slaps Rs 25 lakh fine on Steelco Gujarat, promoter group for non-compliance

Markets watchdog Sebi has imposed a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on Steelco Gujarat Ltd and its promoter group Spica Investments for not complying with the minimum public shareholding norms within the mandated timeframe.

A Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) probe found that the entities had not taken appropriate steps to comply with the minimum 25% shareholding in the company.

Sebi had in June 2010 issued directions wherein all listed companies were required to comply with the minimum public shareholding requirement of at least 25% on or before June 3, 2013.

As per the regulator, the shareholding of the promoters of Steelco Gujarat Ltd (SGL) had increased to 78.26% during February 2002 to June 2002.

However, Sebi said "the noticees were able to comply with the minimum public shareholding requirement only on August 06, 2014, resulting in a delay of 14 months." Earlier, through an interim order, Sebi had slapped various curbs on over 100 non-compliant firms, their promoters and directors for not meeting the norms.

It had frozen the voting rights and corporate benefits of promoters/directors of these companies and barred them from holding new position on boards of listed firms, among others.

Slapping a penalty, Sebi said these entities have failed to comply with the clause of Listing Agreement and thus violated provisions of Securities Contracts Regulation Act.

"I find that if SGL had taken appropriate steps to increase its minimum public shareholding to 25% within the stipulated three years timeline... the said delay would not have occurred," the regulator added.