MUMBAI, Dec 9: With Securities Appellate Tribunal set to hear DLF and its senior executives’ plea against Sebi ruling tomorrow, the focus is likely to be on the accounting practices that were followed by the realty major.
The tribunal, last month, clubbed the petition from DLF’s promoters with the company’s main plea against Sebi ruling.
In October, the market watchdog had banned DLF, its chairman K P Singh and five other senior officials from the securities market for three years with regard to alleged non-disclosure of three of its hundreds of subsidiaries in the 2007 IPO filing.
Besides Singh, his son and vice-chairman Rajiv Singh, younger daughter and whole-time director Pia Singh, directors T C Goyal and Ramesh Sanka were also banned from securities market by Sebi.
Pertaining to the case, the focus is likely to shift to accounting standards followed by the realty major as the same is a bone of contention with the Securities Exchange and Board of India (Sebi), sources said.
Under the Companies Act, DLF maintains it had made disclosures under Accounting Standards 21 (AS21) while Sebi is of the view that the company should have followed AS23.
AS21 pertains to consolidated financial statements where information about a parent and it subsidiaries as a single economic entity should be put out to provide a picture of economic resources controlled by the group.
In terms of AS23, the objective is to present information, in the consolidated financial statements, about effects of the investments in associates on the financial position and operating results of a group.
Meanwhile, the tribunal, on November 5, had allowed DLF to redeem Rs 1,806 crore from its mutual fund investments to meet its working capital requirement and to service its debt, till December 31.
Sebi’s ruling against the company and its officials came for “active and deliberate suppression” of material information at the time of its IPO.
“I find that the case of active and deliberate suppression of any material information so as to mislead and defraud the investors in the securities market in connection with the issue of shares of DLF in its IPO is clearly made out in this case.
“I am satisfied that the violations as found in this case are grave and have larger implications on the safety and integrity of the securities market,” Sebi’s Whole-Time Member Rajeev Agarwal had said in the order in October.
“In my view, for the serious contraventions as found in the instant case, effective deterrent actions to safeguard the market integrity. It, therefore, becomes incumbent to deal with contraventions, digression and demeanour of the erring Noticees sternly and take appropriate actions for effective deterrence,” Agarwal had said. (PTI)
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