SEBI contemplates reducing time to list rights issue shares

‘May come down to 8-10 days from the current one month’

Birds rest on the logo of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), India's market regulator, installed on the facade of its head office building in Mumbai, India, in this July 13, 2015 file photo. India will crack down on errant financial firms that raise funds, mainly from millions of rural poor customers, through loosely regulated credit cooperative societies, a senior official in the agriculture ministry said. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files

After reducing the time to list shares on the stock exchanges post-closure of initial public offerings (IPOs), markets regulator SEBI is aiming to cut down the time for listing of rights issue shares, an official said.

In September last year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) decided on reducing the time to list shares on the bourses after IPO to three days from the present six.

The SEBI directive is likely to come into effect from July this year.

SEBI had cited mitigating external risks such as market volatility and uncertainty of financial markets as the reason behind the move.

“SEBI aims to reduce the listing of IPO shares to three days from six days now. It is supposed to be introduced for IPOs from July 2019 onwards. Now, the regulator is working on simplifying the rights issue process,” Central Depository Services (India) Ltd. (CDSL) VP (operations) Nitin Ambure told PTI.

“I hope the number of days for listing the rights issue shares will come down to 8-10 days from about a month now. This may happen in phases,” he said.

Stakeholders involved

The markets regulator has involved stakeholders such as depositories and transaction advisors in the rights issue listing simplification process, he said.

From April, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will be introduced as an alternative payment option for retail investors and SEBI had already cleared a proposal on it.