CIRCULAR No. CIR/CFD/POLICY CELL/2/2014 dated April 17, 2014
1. Please refer to master circular No. SEBI/CFD/DIL/CG/2004/12/10 dated October 29, 2004 on Clause 49 of the Equity Listing Agreement.
2. The Companies Act, 2013 was enacted on August 30, 2013 which provides for a major overhaul in the Corporate Governance norms for all companies. The rules pertaining to Corporate Governance were notified on March 27, 2014. The requirements under the Companies Act, 2013 and the rules notified there under would be applicable for every company or a class of companies (both listed and unlisted) as may be provided therein. It has been decided to review the provisions of the Listing Agreement in this regard with the objectives to align with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013, adopt best practices on corporate governance and to make the corporate governance framework more effective.
3. The full text of the revised Clause 35B of the Equity Listing Agreement is given in Part-A of the circular. The full text of the revised Clause 49 of the Equity Listing Agreement is given in Part-B of the circular.
4. Applicability
4.1 The revised Clause 49 would be applicable to all listed companies with effect from October 01, 2014. However, the provisions of Clause 49(VI)(C) as given in Part-B shall be applicable to top 100 listed companies by market capitalisation as at the end of the immediate previous financial year.
4.2 The provisions of Clause 49(VII) as given in Part-B shall be applicable to all prospective transactions. All existing material related party contracts or arrangements as on the date of this circular which are likely to continue beyond March 31, 2015 shall be placed for approval of the shareholders in the first General Meeting subsequent to October 01, 2014. However, a company may choose to get such contracts approved by the shareholders even before October 01, 2014.
4.3 For other listed entities which are not companies, but body corporate or are subject to regulations under other statutes (e.g. banks, financial institutions, insurance companies etc.), the Clause 49 will apply to the extent that it does not violate their respective statutes and guidelines or directives issued by the relevant regulatory authorities. The Clause 49 is not applicable to Mutual Funds.
4.4 The revised Clause 35B would be applicable to all listed companies and the modalities would be governed by the provisions of Companies (Management and Administration) Rules, 2014. Circular No. CIR/CFD/DIL/6/2012 dated July 13, 2012 stands amended to that extent.
5. The monitoring cell formed by the Stock Exchanges in terms of Circular No. CIR/CFD/POLICYCELL/13/2013 dated November 18, 2013 shall also monitor the compliance with the provisions of the revised Clause 49 on corporate governance for all listed companies. The cell shall ascertain the adequacy and accuracy of disclosures in the quarterly compliance reports received from the companies and shall submit a consolidated compliance report to SEBI within 60 days from the end of each quarter.
6. The above listing conditions are specified in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 11 read with Section 11A of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992. The said listing conditions should form part of the existing Equity Listing Agreement of the Stock Exchange.
7. All Stock Exchanges are advised to ensure compliance with this circular and carry out the amendments to their Listing Agreement as per Part-A and Part-B of this circular.
8. This master circular will supersede all other earlier circulars issued by SEBI on Clauses 35B and 49 of the Equity Listing Agreement.
9. This circular is available on SEBI website at www.sebi.gov.in under the categories Legal Framework and Issues and Listing.
Enclosures:
Part-A: Clause 35B of the Equity Listing Agreement
Part-B: Clause 49 of the Equity Listing Agreement
