News: India Inc wakes up to investors' interest

(BL 07/07/2006) New Delhi - India Inc seems to be doing a good job of protecting investors' interests following a crackdown by the market regulator earlier this year, as the number of complaints relating to non-receipt of refunds and allotment letters have nearly halved. According to the latest data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulator received a total of 549 investor grievances against listed companies between May 1 and 15, sharply down from 1,199 complaints received in the pre vious fortnight. After a probe into alleged abusive practices in more than 100 IPOs between 2003 and 2005, the SEBI had released a 256-page interim order towards April end, barring a number of market operators from trading. This was followed by announcements of several r edressal measures over the subsequent weeks. The complaints were received from investors across various categories relating to non-receipt of refund orders, allotment letters, dividend, share certificates, bonus shares, right forms, interest on delayed receipt of refund order, debenture certificate s, interest on debentures, redemption amount of debentures, interest on delayed payment of interest on debentures and interest on redemption amount of debentures. However, a sharp improvement was witnessed across all the categories during the fortnight under review, the SEBI data shows. The SEBI received 151 investor grievances for non-receipt of refund orders or allotment letters between May 1 and 15, as against 284 complaints in this category between April 16 and 30. The non-receipt of dividend category got only 78 complaints as again st 197 grievances in the previous fortnight.