Stricter independent director norms approved by SEBI to attract more investors into the market:
SEBI on 29th of June approved stricter norms related to independent directors in order to strengthen the corporate governance and also to attract more investors into the market by reducing the minimum subscription amount for REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and InvITs (Infrastructure Investments Trusts). SEBI also decided to introduce some more additional measures as well along with this new change. I have summarised some of them in pointers below:
All banks other than scheduled banks are permitted to act as a banker for issuing rights/public issues to provide easier access for investors.
Indian fund managers can now act as constituents of foreign portfolio investors.
It is required for a listed company to disclose the resignation letter of an independent director.
One year cooling period for independent directors transitioning to a whole time director in the same company/holding/subsidiary/ associate or any company belonging to the promoter group.
For REITs and InvITs: Minimum application value in the range of ₹.10000-15000 and trading lot will be of one unit for both.
IPOs and follow on offer: Minimum subscription should not be less than ₹ 1 lakh for InvITs and ₹ 50000 for REITs under the current rules.
Changes would be made to the prohibition of insider trading regulations whereby the reward for informants would be hiked up to ₹ 10 crore from the current 1 crore.
