Mumbai: In a series of reforms, markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday eased norms for startup listings and allowed mutual funds to segregate distressed assets to safeguard investment returns.
At a meeting held here, the Sebi board also approved a proposal to expand the offer-for-sale mechanism for reduction of stake in listed companies and relaxed clubbing of investment limit norms for well-regulated foreign investors.Sebi board
Besides, it cleared a proposal to allow custodial services in the commodity derivatives market to enable institutional participation.
With regard to listing of startups, the regulator has relaxed norms for new-age ventures in sectors like
ecommerce, data analytics and biotechnology to raise funds and get their shares traded on stock exchanges.
Other measures included renaming the ‘Institutional Trading Platform’ that the regulator had created for such listings as ‘Innovators Growth Platform’.
The relaxation in norms follows tepid market response to the existing platform and demands from various stakeholders to make the rules easier and the platform more accessible in the wake of expanding activities in the Indian startup space.
“It (Institutional Trading Platform) has not taken off since 2015, we are aware of that, Sebi tried reviving it in 2016 also. But that time it couldn’t be done.
“Now this time since June-July we had a detailed discussion with the tech companies from Bangalore... We have tried to build in various features and we hope that it will be used for listing and also exit of funds which are in startups,” Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi told reporters here after the board meeting.
In another big move, Sebi has decided to allow mutual funds to create segregated portfolios with respect to debt and money market instruments in case of credit events while ensuring fair treatment to all unit holders.
