ICICI Securities delisting: Sebi starts looking into complaints of vote meddling

At the gathering it was decided to delist ICICI Securities  and merge it with its genitor firm. More than 500 shareholders of ICICI Securities coordinated connected WhatsApp and social-media platforms to lodge astir 70 complaints with Sebi, according to a idiosyncratic successful the know.

“Sebi is presently examining aggregate complaints. Once determination is due evidence, the regulator volition initiate an investigation. What enactment Sebi volition instrumentality is hard to say," the idiosyncratic added.

Manu Rishi Guptha, a Bangalore-based money manager and a number shareholder successful ICICI Securities said, “Investors person filed 60-70 complaints with Sebi and besides complained connected the SCORES platform." He added that the cardinal allegations successful these complaints are the usurpation of information privateness of its shareholders by ICICI Securities and the valuation astatine which the institution is being delisted.

Guptha is starring a radical of implicit 100 shareholders of ICICI Securities who past period filed a people enactment suit with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against ICICI Bank Ltd’s connection to delist ICICI Securities from the banal exchanges.

Mint reported earlier that employees of ICICI Bank had reached retired to shareholders of ICICI Securities successful the days starring up to the important shareholder gathering connected 27 March, wherever it was decided to delist the institution and merge it with ICICI Bank. 

Both BSE and NSE subsequently sought a clarification from ICICI Bank and ICICI Securities, portion experts raised concerns astir data-privacy and corporate-governance violations.

In their identical responses to the exchanges, the 2 firms said they were reaching retired to shareholders "to explicate the projected strategy and the e-voting process with the superior nonsubjective of maximising information successful the vote". There was an overlap betwixt shareholders and retail customers of the 2 entities, they said, without elaborating further connected however ICICI Bank employees got the idiosyncratic accusation of ICICI Securities shareholders. 

A spokesperson for ICICI Bank directed Mint to this effect erstwhile contacted, portion Sebi and ICICI Securities did not respond to queries.

Also read: What’s vexing ICICI Securities’ number shareholders?

Five shareholders antecedently told Mint that the bank’s employees had phoned and visited ICICI Securities shareholders astatine their homes to transportation them to ballot successful favour of the delisting. Some of the employees adjacent asked for screenshots of their votes arsenic proof, the shareholders said. 

One shareholder we spoke to said they were perplexed astir however ICICI Bank employees got their interaction details arsenic they had ne'er dealt with ICICI Bank arsenic a lawsuit oregon shareholder, and were not a lawsuit of ICICI Securities either. Mint could not independently verify if the bank’s employees had attempted to power the votes of shareholders.

The ballot to delist

Minority shareholders voted to delist ICICI Securities and marque it a 100% subsidiary of ICICI Bank connected 27 March. The slope holds a 74.73% involvement successful the brokerage firm, with the remainder being held by nationalist shareholders.

However, galore retail shareholders, who collectively clasp astir 6% of the company, disagreed with the valuation astatine which it was being delisted. Shareholders of ICICI Securities volition get 67 shares of ICICI Bank for each 100 shares they ain of the brokerage firm.

Also read: Quantum MF cries foul connected ICICI Securities delisting, complains to Sebi

ICICI Bank and ICICI Securities person said the valuation was arrived astatine by autarkic valuers and vetted by autarkic experts for some the slope and the brokerage business. ICICI Securities was the archetypal institution to usage a caller Sebi regularisation that grants an exemption from the reverse book-building process for terms find erstwhile delisting a listed subsidiary engaged successful a akin concern arsenic the parent.

However, immoderate shareholders pointed retired that ICICI Securities was listed astatine a price-to-earnings aggregate of astir 32x but was being delisted astatine astir 15x. After the delisting vote, these shareholders lodged complaints done Sebi’s online SCORES platform.

Also read: ICICI Securities delisting gets motion from organization investors contempt retail resistance