MUMBAI, April 2: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided to ``immediately review'' all companies which came out with initial public offers (IPOs) in 1997-98, to ascertain whether they exist or not.The review, following renewed allegations that companies have vanished after raising money from the market, would be similar to the one undertaken for the year 1994-95, when only 15 companies out of 1,202 which had tapped the capital market with par and premium IPOs, were found untraceable."We will come out with a report on the 1997-98 review in a short period," Sebi officials told PTI.The 1994-95 review was carried out in 1995-96 after the market regulator came in for criticism that it remained a silent spectator to companies vanishing overnight after raising money from the public.Sebi has now undertaken "physical verification" of the 15 "missing companies" which had tapped the market with par issues. "We want to find out whether these companies really exist," the officials said.The findings of the 1994-95 review were based on information gathered from the stock exchanges as well as from the 17 out of 19 offices of Registrars of Companies (RoCs).Sebi had asked Department of Company Affairs (DCA) to provide through its RoCs information as to whether these companies comply with the stipulations contained in the companies act, in order to be "doubly sure", a senior Sebi official said.Except the RoCs in Mumbai and Delhi, all the other 17 RoCs have provided the needed information and one company was found to have vanished. Out of the 209 companies in the jurisdiction of the RoC based in Mumbai, information on 114 has not been received."Sebi understands that the RoC has sent show cause notices to the 114 companies asking why have they not filed their balance sheets," the official said.In 1994-95, 828 companies came out with IPOs at par and of them, six were refunded. From among the remaining 822 companies, 802 were reported by stock exchanges to be complying with the listingrequirements. Letters were sent to the remaining 20 companies asking why they were not complying with listing requirements and only five responded by sending their balance sheets. Physical verification is on for the remaining 15 companies.A total of 382 companies came out with IPOs at premiums in 1994-95 and two of them subsequently refunded the proceeds. Of the 380 companies, three are not being traded at all, but they comply with the listing requirements, Sebi official said.
