Reliance corporate governance: Sebi alerts stockmarket

The directive was given at the weekly scrutiny meeting of Sebi and stock exchanges under the supervision of its chairman G N Bajpai here.

When contacted, the spokesperson of Sebi did not offer any comments. “This meeting was confidential,” he said, refusing to confirm or deny the latest Sebi directive. Reliance Industries has an investor base of 3.5 million.

Sebi’s directive follows a slew of reports appearing in the media about undisclosed investments, funding of ventures, ownership issues and holding pattern.

This is the first instance of a regulator or a government agency directly intervening in the Ambani dispute.

Reliance group shares were hammered on several days as the proxy war between the two Ambani brothers has not shown signs of ending.

At the Monday’s meeting, stock exchanges were told that if they had not taken any step under the listing agreement, they should do it immediately considering the seriousness of the issue. As per the listing agreement, companies are expected to inform the exchanges and investors about any change in the ownership of the company, fund raising or investment, formation of new ventures and any other decision related to the management and use of funds.

Significantly, the stock exchanges were also asked to analyse chronogically reports about Reliance empire appearing in the media in the last few weeks. Various charges and counter-charges — involving the group’s infocomm business, investment companies and ownership — are being made in the proxy war for the control of the Rs 99,000-crore Reliance group. Currently, five Reliance group companies are listed on the stock exchange.