Vedanta: Market norms: Sebi fines Vedanta, RIL group firm, Zee promoter co

MUMBAI: In three different orders, Sebi on Friday fined Vedanta, part of Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Group, Reliance Strategic Investments, part of Mukesh Ambani’s RIL Group, and Cyquator Media Services, one of the promoters of Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), for violations of various rules that govern trading in the stock market.
Vedanta was fined Rs 30 lakh for misleading market disclosures relating to the group’s proposed joint venture with Foxconn, a Taiwan-based global contract manufacturing major, to make semiconductors in India. Through another order, Reliance Strategic Investments was fined Rs 7 lakh for illegal trades in Nifty options in 2017, while Cyquator Media Services was fined Rs 4 lakh for not making timely disclosure about pledging of shares in 2019.

In the Vedanta order, Sebi said that in February 2022, a news report had said that Vedanta was partnering Foxconn to make semiconductors in India. When BSE and NSE sought clarifications from the company, it said that it was Volcan Investments, the unlisted holding company of Vedanta, that was to form the JV and not the company, the listed entity. In September 2019, Vedanta had issued a press release stating it had signed an MoU with the Gujarat government to set up semiconductors and display fab units.
Since this release was contradicting Vedanta’s earlier reply of February 2022, NSE again sought clarification from the company. Subsequently, Vedanta told NSE that the press release was made inadvertently on the company’s letterhead and the same was immediately replaced with the same release without any letterhead. It maintained that the proposed venture for manufacturing semiconductors would not be done by Vedanta but by Volcan Investments.
The release, however, continued to be hosted on Vedanta’s website. At the end of the release, it carried the company’s profile that said Vedanta was listed on the BSE and the NSE.
After this, Sebi started its investigations into the matter, mainly relating to inadequate disclosure by Vedanta. The regulator believed that although it was known since February 2022 that the unlisted holding company, Volcan Investments, would be the one that will enter into the JV with Foxconn, Vedanta continued to mislead investors with such releases as if it was to enter into the JV.