Different strokes

Prudent cancellation
Time to announce a minor success. The Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI has cancelled the registration as a Foreign Institutional Investor FII granted to Prudential Insurance Company which was sued in the US and accused of unjust enrichment to the tune of a whopping two billion. The registration was cancelled following our report about Prudential8217;s dubious track record detailing how it had paid a hefty 35 million to policy holders for misleading them and returned a whopping 410 million which had been collectedunlawfully from policy holders. It had also paid a one million fine for destroying documents. We have our information from top SEBI officials, but for some reason SEBI has issued no press release announcing the cancellation. Prudent, wouldn8217;t you say?

Powerful connections or clout?
A little bird offers us this interesting comparison. Last week we wrote that the Mittals powerful connections ensured that power was restored to its steel units in Maharashtra even though its arrears are fast heading towards Rs 100 crore and the Maharashtra State Electricity Board MSEB makes losses. On the other hand there is SEBI the powerful stock market regulator had to go without electricity for an entire week at one of its offices because the lessor from whom it leases the office space failed to pay MSEB. Power was restored only when SEBI moved Court charging misappropriation of funds and the Court issued directions which allowed its power to be switched back on.

Hamara profit
Here is more on BajajAutos investment in ICICI. We have it on the best authority, that Bajaj a cool book profit of Rs 90 crores on a Rs 300 crore investment in just six months. Apparently, Bajaj Auto8217;s interest in ICICI is strictly profit-motivated. The question is, what happens if Bajaj decides to book the profit? ICICI better keep Bajaj convinced that its shares are worth holding on to, otherwise the share price will be moving south in a hurry. After all several specified stocks would have fetched higher return in the same six months than ICICI.

No special information
On the issue of whether non-bank Depositary Participants can compel investors account holders to pay deposits/advances ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 3000 for operating their accounts, the Reserve Bank says that it has nothing to do with the issue. The amounts, it says have been collected as security deposits the matter is not within its jurisdiction. Actually, nowhere do the DPs themselves call the money a security deposit. The question then is that ifDPs feel the need for a security deposit, why have they been waiving custody charges and account opening charges? Also, unless SEBI imposes some restriction on the use of these advances it will only be creating an avenue for misappropriation of funds. SEBI is clearly worried that this will increase the cost of dematerialisation to investors.

Finally, according to the RBI, the job of answering media queries is giving out special information. It has now decided not to confer such a privilege on this writer who had the temerity not to receive its e-mail reply addressed to yohoo.com and went ahead and believed a correctly addressed mail from the Governors secretary which categorically stated that it would not be possible to meet the column deadline. For those who still want to share information with this writer special or otherwise, the correct email address is listed below.

8212; Author8217;s email: suchetadalalyahoo.com