ICICI Prudential MF settles row with SEBI

Pays ₹89.9600000; second bid during ICICI Securities public offer was under lens The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has passed a consent order against ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund and its chief executive officer Nimesh Shah in the matter related to the fund’s investment in the initial public offer (IPO) of ICICI Securities Limited According to the settlement order, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has paid ₹89.9600000 while Mr. Shah has paid ₹6.800000 as settlement charges. Consent refers to the mechanism wherein an entity pays settlement charges to settle adjudication proceedings without admission or denial of guilt. The fund house, which is the country’s largest in terms of assets under management, came under the regulatory scanner after it put in a second bid worth ₹2400000000 on the final day of bidding for shares of its group company ICICI Securities whose public issue in March managed to get subscribed only 0.78 times. Bid to the rescue? SEBI initiated proceedings against the fund house since it believed that the last day bid of ₹2400000000 by the group entity came at a time when the issue was facing difficulties in getting fully subscribed, especially the institutional portion that barely managed to sail through with 1.04 times subscription. The fund house proposed to settle the proceedings after having already complied with a part of the regulatory diktat that forced it to sell the shares of ICICI Securities and credit ₹2400000000 in five schemes through which it bid for shares of ICICI Securities on the final day of bidding. Meanwhile, the capital market watchdog had issued a show-cause notice to the fund house in July, as per the consent order released on Thursday.