Rs 250 mutual fund SIPs, single-bourse disclosures for companies soon: Sebi chief

Mumbai, Sep 3, 2024

Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Monday said that soon companies, instead of filing new disclosures with two stock exchanges as is required by the regulator, would be able to file on one and the same will automatically reflect on the other. She also said that the mutual fund industry would soon be able to cut down the minimum ticket size for SIPs to Rs 250.

Puri Buch was speaking at an event organised by industry trade body CII here.

At the same event, Sebi's whole time member Ashwani Bhatia warned the market about the pitfalls of being too aggressive with IPOs for SMEs. The official's cautionary words came within a week of a regulatory warning about some entities indulging in fraudulent practices in this space.

On Sebi chief's proposal to halve the minimum SIP ticket size to Rs 250, industry players feel that such a move has the potential to make the mode of long-term investing even more popular. In the MF industry, although some tech-driven brokers and service providers have been offering SIPs with as low a ticket size at Rs 100, such offers are yet to gain any momentum.

Puri Buch also said that the regulator was working to make IPO documents available to investors in multiple Indian languages. Currently these are available only in English.

Bhatia said that at times merchant bankers, chartered accounts and exchanges should refuse to take an SME public where there are signs of manipulations. "Be good doctors to these companies. Don't give them steroids when they can survive on paracetamol," Bhatia said.

He also said that rather than rushing to get listed, SMEs could also look at alternate sources of funding like crowdfunding, angel investors and venture funds.

Bhatia warned that if SMEs, in their rush to get listed, try to take short cuts, like trying to inflate balance sheets, "the relationships between intermediaries and companies will be (a) very short-one".

[The Times of India]