Following Wednesday’s tribunal (SAT) order dismissing Gillette’s appeal to reclassify the shares of one of its promoters as public shareholding, SEBI has frozen the voting rights and the right to corporate benefits (dividend, rights, bonus, share splits, and the like) of the Gillette promoters and promoter group.
A SEBI order on Friday said that Gillette’s promoter group shares that are in excess of three times the current public shareholding would be frozen until it complies with minimum public shareholding (MPS) requirement of 25 per cent.
Promoters currently hold 88.76 per cent of Gillette India, according to latest stock exchange data.
In addition, promoters, promoter group and directors have been prohibited from buying and selling and dealing in securities. They have also been barred from taking up the position of director in other companies, pending compliance.
SEBI said it reserved its right to levy a fine, prosecute, move the scrip to trade-to-trade segment and exclude the scrip from the F&O segment.
Gillette has been directed to submit quarterly compliance report to exchanges on the extent of MPS compliance achieved.
SEBI has asked exchanges and depositories to enable MPS compliance.