Sebi expedites IPO clearing process

MUMBAI, Dec 15 (Business Standard): Capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sped up the process for clearing offer documents for initial public offering (IPO), an official said today.

"After the rejection framework has been introduced, Sebi has taken less than three months to clear the offer documents," said VS Sundaresan, chief general manager, Sebi.

"Sebi only takes the required time to clear offer documents unlike the market perception that the documents get stuck at our end," he said.

Sundaresan said that Sebi has been keeping pace with reforms and market demands.

Under the new framework, Sebi can now reject offer documents that don't have adequate disclosures or don't meet the requirements laid down by the regulator.

Because of this rule, Sundaresan said the quality of disclosures have improved significantly.

Sebi has so far not rejected any offer documents. Sundaresan said "there has been only one case we attempted to invoke that rejection framework".