Sebi grants exemption for delisting of Universal Properties

Shares of the firm are listed on Calcutta Stock Exchange, Sebi said in an order passed on Monday. The order came after Sebi received an application from the firm in June 2018, seeking exemption from the provisions of Delisting Regulations.

Markets regulator Sebi has given exemption to Universal Properties Ltd from certain provisions for delisting its shares. Shares of the firm are listed on Calcutta Stock Exchange, Sebi said in an order passed on Monday.

The order came after Sebi received an application from the firm in June 2018, seeking exemption from the provisions of Delisting Regulations. It stated that the equity shares have not been traded on CSE since 1997.

The promoters' share in the firm is 74.67 per cent and the rest 25.33 per cent is held by 119 public shareholders as of March 31, 2019. Delisting norms mandate receiving consent of the shareholders holding at least 90 per cent of public shareholding of a company.

However, despite repeated attempts by the firm, the shareholders remained untraceable. The firm further said that its accumulated loss is about 60 per cent of its paid up capital and it is financially not viable for it to comply with the various provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 like appointment of independent director, appointment of internal auditor, appointment of chief financial officer, paying their remuneration etc.

With meagre resources, the company said it is just managing to clear the filing fees of MCA and stock exchange listing fee and is not in a position to even incur day to day establishment costs. Considering the application, Sebi said "the applicant has made efforts in the past to delist itself by providing exit opportunity to the existing public shareholders but was unable to garner consent of the requisite number of public shareholders, a vast majority of whom were untraceable." Therefore, Sebi has granted exemption to the firm from complying with certain provisions of delisting norms. The exemption is subject to certain conditions.

Among others, the company needs to comply with all other conditions, including those pertaining to determination of the offer price and the offer price shall be paid to tendering shareholders as provided in the delisting norms. Through two separate orders passed on Tuesday, Sebi imposed fine of Rs 1 lakh each on Maa Leafin and Capital Ltd and Awas Ayogen Vittnigam Ltd for failing to obtain SCORES authentication and not redressing various investor complaints pending against them.

SCORES is an online complaint redressal system of Sebi through which the complaints received by the regulator are electronically forwarded to the listed company which in turn is required to resolve the same and furnish an action taken report in electronic form..