Stock market regulator SEBI has mandated listed companies to use electronic voting for seeking shareholder approvals. This will enable greater shareholder participation in decision-making.

To start with, the SEBI diktat will be applicable to the top 500 companies by market capitalisation on the NSE and the BSE.

SEBI has also made changes to offer-for-sale (OFS) through stock exchanges.

Promoters may offload stake within the cooling-off period of plus/minus 12 weeks only through OFS or institutional placement programme (IPP) with a two-week gap between two such stake sales, said SEBI.

This is also applicable to promoters who have already shed stake through OFS or IPP.

Time for modifying or cancelling bids has been increased from 30 to 60 minutes prior to close of bidding session.

Indicative price will be shown during the last 60 minutes of the bidding session. This is irrespective of book-building, said SEBI.

Floor price

Floor price disclosure will now be at the seller’s discretion and not a part of the notice.

The seller has the option to disclose the floor price after close of business hours, a day prior to the OFS.

The minimum OFS size has been fixed at Rs 25 crore or the amount that would enable the company achieve minimum public shareholding in a single tranche. Companies now have the option to upsize the offer subject to appropriate disclosure and advance pay-in of shares.

Institutional investors have the option of paying 100 per cent upfront margin or a lower percentage as specified by stock exchanges.

Institutions bringing in lower margin are not allowed to modify their order, said SEBI.

Custodians can now confirm institutional bids post close of trading hours.

However, they should have received bids and payments from institutions before bidding closes.

>raghavendrarao@thehindu.co.in

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