SEBI vide an Informal Guidance to Citigroup (‘Applicant’) clarifies that Merchant Bankers shall not share bidding data with investors or on request of investors during the bidding period, in order to avoid creation of information asymmetry; The Applicant inter alia sought guidance on whether (i) being a book running lead manager (BRLM), it could share the standalone or aggregate bidding data with the investors during the bidding period/as and when requested by investors during the said period, (ii) it can share information (other than the bidding data) available in public domain, as and when requested by investors; Referring to the ICDR Regulations, SEBI states that the standalone and aggregate bidding data is displayed on the stock exchanges’ website, and is publicly available information and remarks, “…while publicly available information may not create data asymmetry among investors, any effort to selectively present the…bidding data…may create information asymmetry and may cause prejudice to the mind of some investors, which is not warranted and not the intent of SEBI Regulations.”; SEBI highlights that the Regulations specifically state that no information extraneous to that disclosed in the draft offer document or offer document shall be given by the issuer/any other member of the issue management team or syndicate to any particular section of investors; In conclusion, SEBI however reiterates that, “…nothing in the Regulations prohibits the BRLM from directing the investors regarding the channels wherefrom publicly available information can be accessed.”:SEBI
The Informal Guidance was issued by Ms. Yogita Jadhav, SEBI.
Team- Intellex Strategic Consulting Private Limited
Intellexconsulting.com, Startupstreets.com,
