The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is set to hold its first board meeting of FY26 on June 18, with discussions likely to focus on the ease of doing business, regulatory transparency and transformative reforms. This will be the second board meeting under newly appointed Chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey, who is expected to place a strong emphasis on effective reforms in capital markets to foster investor confidence and market efficiency.
“Our focus remains on promoting ease of doing business in the securities market through regulatory simplification, faster approvals, and technology-driven oversight. We are committed to a framework of optimum regulation—one that ensures investor protection while allowing businesses to innovate and thrive," Pandey had said at an Assocham event on May 22.
As part of the meeting’s agenda, decisions are expected to be taken on alternative investment funds (AIFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs), infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs), voluntary delisting of government-owned companies, and norms related to employee stock options (Esops).
In FY20-21, the AIF industry had requested Sebi to allow co-investment facilities within the AIF structure by issuing a separate class of units to co-investors. Following this, Sebi had set up a working group to review compliance requirements under AIF regulations and provide recommendations to simplify them, to provide ease of doing business and reduce the cost of compliance.
According to current regulations, an MF scheme cannot invest more than 10 percent of its net asset value (NAV) in REIT and InvIT units, subject to a maximum of 5 percent of its NAV in units of REIT and InvIT issued by a single issuer. Additionally, no MF, under all its schemes, can own more than 10 percent of units issued by a single issuer.
Decisions in this regard will include factors like eligibility, requirement of complying with minimum public shareholding norms, fixed-price delisting process (with a 15 percent premium over the floor price), relaxing the requirement of seeking two-thirds approval from public shareholders for the delisting proposal, and exit price to public shareholders.One of the key topics likely to be considered by the Sebi board is regarding Esop rules for startup founders after public listing of their companies. Under the current regulations, founders need to be classified as promoters at the time of listing. However, this means once founders are designated as promoters they become ineligible for Esops.
First Published: Jun 17, 2025, 19:15
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