Corporate

Regulations require constant modifications to keep pace with the ever evolving market dynamics. Insider trading is no different, explain Khaitan & Co’s Ganesh Prasad and Sanjay Khan.

The law ministry has advised against the setting up of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) to chair which recently retired Supreme Court justice KS Radhakrishnan’s name had been recommended, reported the Express.

The reported reason for this advice was that the National Company Law Tribunal – appeals from which would go to the NCLAT – had not yet been established.

On shooting down Radhakrishnan’s name recommendation the law ministry said that the name had to be approved by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), and also advised against appointing two judicial members to the yet-to-be constituted Tribunal, which is a statutory requirement under the new Companies Act.

The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has written to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) against the newly notified Companies Act sections, some of which are potentially “fatal to the profession of Company Secretaries” in India.

Verus Advocates partner Jay Parikh explains why the Reserve Bank of India recently announced it won’t dictate valuation of shares for foreign investors anymore.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) partner Lalit Kumar has set out the important new sections of the Companies Act that were yesterday announced by the MCA and would be notified and come into force on 1 April.

Archana Balasubramanian, Partner, Agama Law Associates argues that the new Companies Act corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy is deeply flawed at nearly every level.

JSA partner Lalit Kumar writes that he is pleased with some of the developments coming from India’s regulators to encourage FDI, but much more needs to be done this year if India wants to dream of recovering foreign investor goodwill.

Khaitan & Co advised Morgan Stanley in managing Standard & Poor’s-owner McGraw Hill Financial’s $335m (Rs 1,957 crore) open offer for 22.23 per cent of shares in India-headquartered credit rating agency Crisil. McGraw Hill was advised by Singhania & Partners.

Khaitan & Co partner Arindam Ghosh and executive director Sudhir Bassi acted for Morgan Stanley.

Singhania & Partners partner Manish Kumar Sharma acted for McGraw Hill.

With this offer McGraw Hill raised its holding in Crisil from 52.8 per cent to 75 per cent, valuing Crisil at around Rs 8,600 crore, according to the Business Standard.

Link Legal advised Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC) and the Government of India in raising funding from public sector lender Japan Bank of International Corporation (JBIC). JBIC was advised by Indian Law Partners and Ashurst.

By Nikhil Kanekal: It’s going to be an incredibly tough future for the Subroto Roy-owned Sahara Group (also known as Sahara India Parivar) after today’s judgment by the Supreme Court of India. The court asked two group companies to return an unprecedented Rs 24,000 crores ($4.3bn) to their roughly 28 million investors, while setting the company and its directors up for possible criminal prosecution.

The judgment is a stinging indictment of the company’s practices. It is also probably the largest ever transaction ordered by an Indian court to date.

The Government of India’s (GOI) new consolidated foreign direct investment (FDI) policy circular effective from 1 October 2011 has de-classified instruments with options from being FDI investments and introduced other significant changes, such as increasing FDI caps in FM Radio and changes in single-brand retail trading norms.

The third consolidated policy circular on the foreign direct investment (FDI) made effective today has scrapped press note 1 and introduced other directives to further streamline FDI investments in India a year after the Government first announced policy overhauls.

The government is mulling making Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) voluntary rather than mandatory with the objective of invigorating spirit of “intent” over “legislation” in the new Companies Bill which is awaiting parliamentary approval.

The department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) has invited public discussions on whether foreign direct investments should be allowed into entities and professional services firms, including law firms, incorporated as limited liability partnerships (LLPs).

J Sagar Associates (JSA) managing partner Berjis Desai and Aditya Birla Group GC Ashok Gupta debate whether the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) has now come back to life with the latest Bombay HC judgement in the latest episode.