Media house New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) has decided to file an appeal against the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) order imposing a penalty of Rs 12 lakh on the media group for failing to make timely disclosures to the stock exchanges.
The order imposing the penalty was issued by the SEBI after it noticed multiple disclosure lapses by NDTV and noted non-compliance with Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeover (SAST) regulations.
The company said that the SEBI order, which is yet to be received by them, is likely to be set aside in appeal. “The company will be filing an appeal against the said order of and when the same is received by the company, and as per advice received by the company, this order is likely to be set aside in appeal”, said NDTV in a regulatory filing.
According to the SEBI order, NDTV delayed the disclosure of the information relating to the acquisition of 40 lakh of its shares by Indiabulls Financial Services in January 2008 and the acquisition of 20.28% of the total share capital of the media group by its promoters in July 2008. Following these transactions, the entities were supposed to make the required disclosures to NDTV as per relevant SAST provisions and NDTV, in turn, was supposed to report the same to the BSE and the NSE.
“The allegation of delayed disclosures under Regulation 7(3) of SAST… to BSE and NSE against the Notice stands established”, said SEBI.
Earlier this week, NDTV promoters Parnnoy Roy and Radhika Roy were barred by the SEBI from accessing Securities Markets and holding any management post in NDTV for the next 2 years. However, the Roys were able to get a stay order from the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) against this order of SEBI.
