Comply with woman director rule, or else: SEBI wags finger at companies

In a final warning to listed companies, SEBI has said it will not extend the March 31 deadline for getting at least one woman director on their board. Those that fail to do so will be penalised.

Some 160 of the top 500 companies by market capitalisation have not yet complied with a SEBI order of last year that made it mandatory for all listed companies to have at least one woman director. The capital market regulator had initially set October 1, 2014 as the deadline but extended it to April 1, 2015. It also relaxed the requirement from an “independent woman director” to a “woman director”.

“I find it very shameful that in this country, about 8,000 listed companies can’t find even one woman who is competent enough to be on their board,” SEBI Chairman UK Sinha said on Friday, adding that the consequence of non-compliance will be serious.

International financial centre Sinha also said guidelines for setting up the country’s first International Financial Services Centre in Gujarat’s GIFT City will be put in place by April 1. Sinha said issues related to whether or not to apply the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) are being looked into. On the lack of enthusiasm for real estate investment trusts (REITs), Sinha said he was not discouraged. “Even if I look at data from the US, first few years were areas of learning. The growth started happening only after five-six years,” Sinha said.

Listing of start-ups Recognising the need for e-commerce and start-ups to be listed in India, Sinha said that SEBI would be meeting the stakeholders on March 27 to discuss issues acting as roadblocks. SEBI is likely to bring out a consultation paper on this soon and frame regulations in three-four months.

Offer-for-sale norms On relaxing offer-for-sale norms for divestment of public sector undertakings, especially suspension of secondary market trading of the scrip on the day of the OFS, Sinha said SEBI will resolve the issue after speaking to the Finance Ministry.