Market regulator SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) has recently imposed penalties that amount to a total of Rs. 50 lakhs on eight different entities, upon failing to properly disclose their shareholdings in the company PSIT Infrastructure and Services Ltd. The order by the watchdog came after an investigation was conducted by it into the matter of PSIT. The investigation probed into the company's matters from May 2012 to July 2015.
The entities involved in the said penalties include Compass Distributors, Brijdham Dealcom, Economy Sales Pvt Ltd, Miracle Tradecom, Conquer Barter Pvt Ltd, Miracle Tradecom, Narayan Suppliers and Premsagar Vinimay Pvt Ltd. The fines imposed on them range from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 9 lakh.
During the investigation by SEBI into the matter, it was found that on 5th June 2013 during the arrangements involving the merger of PSIT with Crescent Digital Technologies Ltd (CTDL) and Swift IT Infrastructure and Services Ltd., the eight entities had acquired shares of PSIT under the category of 'promoter'.
Following this, they were required to make certain disclosures about their shareholding data to the company, as well as stock exchanges, but they failed to do so. Moreover, the entities had acquired the shares on 12th July 2013 and were also supposed to disclose to PSIT the number of shares/voting rights held by them in the company after the scheme of amalgamation, within two days. However, the entities failed to make those disclosures as well, SEBI noted.
According to the regulator, the 8 entities had filed incorrect and inaccurate information with the company, as well as BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange). This was done on multiple instances, as to the date on which they sold the shares that they had acquired. These actions of the entities violated several provisions under the PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Act.