Public issues: SEBI reduces timelines for refunding investors’ money

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New Delhi: Markets regulator SEBI on March 31 reduced the timelines for a refund of investors’ money to four days in case of non-receipt of minimum subscription and the issuer failing to obtain listing or trading permission from the stock exchanges.

The timelines have been reduced after taking into consideration that Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) has been mandated for all applicants in public issues.

As part of the mechanism, the application money is not transferred but only blocked in the investor’s account and is debited only upon allotment. It is unblocked if there is no or part allotment.

Further, post introduction of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) mechanism in public issues, intermediaries are responsible to compensate investors for any delay in unblocking of amounts in the ASBA accounts exceeding four working days from the bid or issue closing date, SEBI said in a circular.

“Based on various consultations with the market participants, it has been decided to reduce the timelines for refund of the money to the investors… to four days,” SEBI said.

At present, in case of non-receipt of minimum subscription, the issuer is mandated to refund all the application money within 15 days from the closure of the issue. If the issuer fails to obtain listing or trading permission from the stock exchanges where the securities were to be listed, it was supposed to refund the entire money received within 7 days of receipt of intimation from the exchanges rejecting the application. These timelines have now been reduced to four days.