India markets regulator warns ICICI Bank over investor outreach for unit's delisting

ICICI Securities

06/06/2024 13:01

MUMBAI, June 6 (Reuters) - India's markets regulator has
warned ICICI Bank  ICBK.NS  over its employees reaching out to
shareholders of its unit, ICICI Securities  ICCI.NS , to urge
them to vote in favour of the unit delisting from stock
exchanges, the bank said on Wednesday.
    ICICI Securities, a subsidiary of ICICI Bank, had secured a
shareholder nod in March for the delisting.
    The Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) warning
letter to ICICI Bank says it received several complaints that
the bank made multiple attempts to persuade ICICI Securities'
shareholders to vote in favour of the delisting.
    The bank argued that the so-called outreach was to present a
factual position of the transaction.
    The regulator said that since ICICI Bank was an interested
party in the transaction, there was a conflict of interest and
thus, the outreach was inappropriate.
    "This has been viewed seriously," the SEBI said.

 (Reporting by Jayshree P Upadhyay; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
 ((Jayshree.Pyasi@thomsonreuters.com; 9920092491; Reuters
Messaging: Twitter: @jaysh88))