SEBI rues lack of startup IPO proposals from Eastern India

SEBI Chairman U K Sinha said many companies have approached the regulator with IPO plans, but rued the absence of any such proposal from the Eastern region including in the startup space.

"There is a healthy pipeline of IPOs lying with SEBI for clearance. But there is not a single proposal from the eastern zone, which is cause for concern," Sinha said at a seminar organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce at Kolkata.

The SEBI chief said that India was growing and there were signs of optimism everywhere. "But eastern region has to grow when India is growing," he said.

Historically, most of the IPO proposals emerging from the Eastern region came from West Bengal. "I have also checked it out from the regional office here. There are no proposals from this part," Sinha said.

Sinha said that the east needed to look beyond the traditional business models for investment plans. SEBI meanwhile, is also framing new norms for floating IPOs by technological startups. "Is there no technological startups here?" he asked.

On money raising, Sinha said that in the first quarter of current fiscal, more money had been raised from the capital market as compared to the previous financial year. SEBI had issued observations on 24 Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) involving an investment of Rs 10,000 crore, he said.

The SEBI board in its last meeting had cleared the norms for electronic IPOs wherein more responsibility would lay to merchant bankers, due diligence, and also containment of volatility by introducing call option on opening date of listing.

In another initiative, the capital market regulator has asked RBI to allow all public sector banks to have ASBA (applications supported by blocked amount). "RBI has ensured that all nationalised banks will have such a facility", Sinha said.

Image Credit : Shutterstock

Read More :

SEBI relaxes listing, fund-raising norms for startups

SEBI eases way for Small and Medium Enterprises listings

SEBI’s reforms for startups may lead to funds misuse, says a report

SEBI Sets Angel Investment parameters – Game Changer for ecosystem