Promoters of listed companies need to compute the quantum of share they purchase separately at the time of each acquisition and thereafter aggregate them at the end of a financial year for the purpose of deciding the regulatory cap, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has said.

SEBI expressed this opinion in relation to a five per cent cap on the quantum of shares to be acquired by the promoters of a company through creeping acquisition during the course of a financial year.

In reply to an informal guidance sought by Aksh Optifibre Ltd in this regard, SEBI has said that the five per cent limit cannot be calculated on the basis of the shareholding before or after the overall share purchase by the promoters.

Instead, the quantum of share purchase would need to be computed at the time of every acquisition of shares and thereafter all the purchases require to be aggregated to decide compliance to the five per cent limit.

“It is clarified that the quantum of acquisition of voting rights for the purpose of the regulation...shall be computed separately for every acquisition of voting rights based on the paid-up share capital of the target company at the time of acquisition and aggregated for the financial year,” SEBI said.

Aksh Optifibre had a promoter stake of 30.05 per cent as on March 31, 2012 which increased to 33.70 per cent at the end of July 31, 2012.

The change in the promoter shareholding of the firm took place through five transactions during April 1, 2012 to July 31, 2012.

In this regard, Aksh Optifibre had sought SEBI’s opinion if the limit of five per cent can be calculated based on its stake as on March 31, 2012 or according to the present share capital of the company.