Sebi to seek extra funds for investor programmes

To bolster awareness among investors and ring-fence them from possible frauds, capital markets regulator Sebi plans to seek additional funds from the government for strengthening its IPEF (Investor Protection and Education Fund) programmes.

With expenses towards various investor protection and education initiatives estimated to be nearly Rs 55 crore for next fiscal, Sebi may seek board’s approval for additional funding for IPEF, a senior official said. Investor Protection and Education Fund (IPEF), set up by Sebi, had a corpus of Rs 35 crore at the end of January 2014.

The Sebi board is also expected to consider a significant revision in fee charges from various entities so as to meet expenses for its regulatory and investor-centric activities.Meanwhile, Sebi wants to recover legal expenses incurred in such litigations from penalties imposed by it on defaulters before crediting the same to the government's coffers.

Further, Sebi is also considering to charge ‘processing fees’ for various service requests from companies, stock exchanges and market intermediaries, as many of such services are being provided for free despite significant costs incurred by the regulator in such matters, sources said.Fees are proposed to be levied on all service requests, barring investor complaints, while existing fees can be hiked for services like informal guidance and consent settlement. These are based on recommendations made by a Committee on Rationalisation of Financial Resources.

Polaris Financial Technology gets in-principle nod to demerge its Products Business

Polaris Financial Technology’s board of directors at its meeting held on March 18, 2014 has given in-principle approval for demerging the Products Business Undertaking of the Company into a separate Listed Company.

The scheme/structure is subject to the approval by the various regulatory authorities like Stock Exchanges, SEBI, Madras High Court, Registrar of Companies, Shareholders and Creditors.

Polaris is a full-spectrum Financial Technology major, using technology as an enabler to drive unprecedented operational productivity in Retail, Corporate and Investment Banking. Polaris services over 200 banks across the world, including 9 of the top 10 banks, with a comprehensive suite of products, services and consulting offerings.

Oceanaa Biotek Industries hits capital markets to raise Rs 2.10 crore

Oceanaa Biotek Industries (OBIL) has hit the capital markets, through BSE SME Platform, with an initial public offering IPO of 21,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each aggregating upto Rs 2.10 crore. The issue opens for subscription on March 18, 2014 at a fixed price band of Rs 10 per share, while it will close for subscription on March 20, 2014.

OBIL is a specialized food testing laboratory and engaged in the business of food analysis. They are setting up a specialized food analysis laboratory to perform consumer food testing for food producers worldwide. The company is an independent entity of the Oceanaa group

TCS follows Infosys; lowers Q4 margins, revenue estimates

Tech giant  Tata Consultancy Services has followed  Infosys to sound an alert over its up coming fourth quarter earnings. TCS expects revenues and margins to be lower than third quarter. The company believes that Indian situation remains volatile. 

TCS held its mid quarter analyst meet today. The meet assumes importance after Infosys negatively surprised the street with its outlook for Q4 as well as the first half of the next fiscal year. TCS, however, continues to sound extremely positive. They said Q4 growth will be less than Q3. However, Q4 is a seasonally weak quarter and was largely on expected lines for analysts. 

With respect to FY15, they continue to sound extremely bullish. They said that there has been no ramp downs or cancellations. There has been no change in the retail vertical fundamentals. Infosys had highlighted that they have seen some pressure in retail hi-tech but that is not corroborated by TCS. They continue to maintain that FY15 is going to be stronger than FY14 and Europe is going to outperform, while the growth for US as well as UK will be inline. They have also assumed that India growth will continue to remain sluggish and discretionary spend will be better.