Sebi eases rules to aid small NGOs raise funds

Mumbai, Nov 26, 2023

Minimum Issue Size On Social Bourses Cut To 50L

The board of Sebi on Saturday relaxed some of the guidelines for small not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) and non-government organisations (NGOs) to tap the social stock exchanges (SSEs) to raise funds, including halving the minimum fund-raising size to Rs 50 lakh. The board also approved a regulatory framework for index providers “with the objective of fostering transparency and accountability in governance and administration of financial benchmarks in the securities market,” the market regulator said in a release.

Sebi board also allowed small and medium real estate investment trusts (SM REITs), with a minimum asset value of Rs 50 crore, to tap the public market to raise funds.

Currently, REITs are allowed for entities with an asset value of at least Rs 500 crore, the release said.

The Sebi board also asked for more data relating to delisting of companies before changing the rules governing these offers, Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch said. The regulator also refused to intervene in the primary offer market to check bunching up of IPOs within a short span of time. The Sebi chief said merchant bankers and the market system are well equipped to handle large numbers of IPOs within a short window. In case Sebi intervened to spread out IPOs over a longer duration, that could have denied some market players the opportunities they were looking for to launch their offer.

The Sebi chief also said that by March 2024, the Indian stock market is expected to move to a trade settlement cycle that would be on a T+0 basis: Meaning the buyer of a stock will get his shares in his demat account by the end of the day the trade is done.

[The Times of India]