Sebi penalises Coffee Day Enterprises, Coffee Day Trading for disclosure lapses

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh each on Coffee Day Enterprises and Coffee Day Trading for failing to make requisite disclosures pertaining to pledged and unpledged shares of Mindtree Ltd to the companies and stock exchanges. Coffee Day Enterprises Limited (CDEL) is a listed company and Coffee Day Trading Limited (CDTL) is a subsidiary of CDEL.

In its order, Sebi found that total 6,81,66,778 shares of Mindtree were pledged and 4,85,09,445 shares were unpledged by CDEL and CDTL during the investigation period -- May 2015 to March 2018.

Under the SAST (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) rules, CDEL and CDTL were under an obligation to disclose pledged and unpledged transactions to the company and stock exchanges within two working days of the disposal (pledged) /acquisition (unpledged) of shares exceeding 2 per cent of total shareholding or voting rights in the company.

Both companies were holding more than 5 per cent shares of Mindtree during the investigation period.

"By non-disclosing pledged/unpledged transactions to the company and stock exchanges within two working days of the disposal (pledged) /acquisition (unpledged), noticees have violated the provisions of Sebi's SAST Regulations," the regulator said.

In four separate orders, the regulator has levied a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on Taneja Vikas, Vishwa S R Kulkarni, Naveen Kumar Kurukuru and Sachin Machhindra Vyavahare for violating insider trading norms in the matter of Mindtree.

The four persons were employees of Mindtree and had transacted in the company's scrip during January 2019 to March 2019. Further, they had done transactions aggregating to a traded value in excess of Rs 10 lakh each over a calendar quarter.

They were required to submit disclosures to the company within two trading days of transactions under the PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) rules. However, they failed to make the disclosures.

The orders came after Sebi received a letter from Mindtree in October 2018 informing the regulator regarding instances of violation of the code of conduct framed by the company under the provisions of insider trading rules by some of its employees and action taken by the company pursuant to the same. PTI SP SHW SHW