India's market regulator Sebi has barred Delhi- based real estate major and six of its top executives, including promoter-chairman K P Singh, from the capital market for three years due to lack of disclosure in the company's IPO prospectus when it went public in 2007.
The Sebi order follows a Rs 6.30 billion fine imposed by fair play regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) against DLF for abusing its dominant position to seriously discomfit flat owners in three Gurgaon apartments. The case is now in the SC. The order, which relates to non-disclosure of an FIR against Sudipti Estates - a subsidiary of DLF -during the IPO process, now curtails DLF's ability to raise funds from the market.
In its order, Sebi said that it found DLF and its directors, including Singh's son Rajiv and daughter Pia, guilty of “active and deliberate suppression” of material information at the time of its public offer. The three others banned by Sebi are T C Goyal (MD), Kameshwar Swarup and Ramesh Sanka, both former directors on its board.
Sebi, however, did not pass any order against G S Talwar, who was a non-executive director at that time, and gave him `benefit of doubt'. According to sources, DLF will likely contest the order in Securities Appellate Tribunal.
