Sebi fines Rs 8 lakh on Reliance Home Finance for disclosure lapses

NEW DELHI: Capital markets regulator Sebi on Friday imposed a penalty of Rs 8 lakh on Reliance Home Finance for failing to make disclosures pertaining to NCLT order issued in June 2021 to the stock exchanges. The fine has to be paid within 45 days, the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi) said.

In its order, Sebi noted that Reliance Home Finance has not made disclosures with respect to the NCLT order dated June 21, 2021 and also did not disclose information regarding appeals filed by it and Bank of Baroda against the NCLT's order.

As per the NCLT's order, Reliance Home Finance was directed to pay the interest on the debentures at the contractual rate, calculated till realisation, within two months and redeem the debentures on payment of the principal in three months thereafter.

Going by the order, the outstanding amount due and payable in respect of the secured non-convertible debentures (NCDs) was more than Rs 2,850 crore.

The company was required to make the disclosures within 24 hours of the passage of the order under Sebi's LODR (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) rule.

"The Noticee (Reliance Home Finance) cannot be absolved from making disclosures, as the same were disclosed in the annual report or the information/event details being covered by the media or on various websites.

"This cannot be considered as compliance of the provisions of... LODR Regulations, 2015..., as the required disclosures were supposed to be made by the Noticee to the exchanges," Sebi said.

Additionally, the firm has made delayed disclosures with respect to the information regarding its debt resolution plan -- invitation of Expression of Interest bid dated July 29, 2020, and approval of resolution plan on June 19, 2021.

The disclosures were to be made not later than July 30, 2020 and June 20, 2021 respectively.

However, the company had made disclosures of the two events to the exchanges on July 31, 2020 and June 21, 2021 respectively, with delay on one day for each event.

Accordingly, the regulator has imposed "penalty of Rs 8 lakh on the noticee for the violation of provisions of... LODR Regulations, 2015 read with clause 2 of Listing Agreement".