The Future Group, in response to the SEBI order on February 3 barring its chief executive officer (CEO) Kishore Biyani and others from accessing the securities market for a year, said the deal with Reliance Retail would remain unaffected.
The SEBI order would not impact the ongoing Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance, the Future Retail Limited said, while adding that the order against Biyani and others is untenable on merits.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), in an order issued through its whole-time member Anant Barua, found Biyani, Future Corporate and other entities involved in “insider trading”. The case dated back to 2017.
“SEBI had conducted an investigation in the scrip of Future Retail Limited to ascertain whether certain persons/entities had traded in the aforesaid scrip during the period March 10, 2017 to April 20, 2017, on the basis of unpublished price sensitive information in contravention of the provisions of the SEBI Act, 1992 and SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading ) Regulations, 2015,” the order read.
Biyani, other people and entities involved were also slapped with a penalty of Rs 3.7 crore. Another amount of Rs 20.53 crore was asked to be disgorged by the entities found involved in insider trading.
The Future Retail Limited, in the statement issued in response to the SEBI order, confirmed that it would be exercising its statutory right to challenge the market regulator’s decision.
The statement, signed by Chief Financial Officer C P Toshniwal, stressed that the deal with Reliance Retail cannot be stalled through the order.
“Debarment/restraint/freeze imposed under this order shall not apply to those existing holding of securities of such debarred entities, in respect of which any scheme of arrangement under Section 230-232 of the Companies Act, 2013, is approved by NCLT, requiring extinguishment of such securities and/or receipt of other securities in lieu of such securities,” it read.
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