Sebi Relaxes Norms for Financial Tech to Divest Stake in MCX

New Delhi: Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) on Friday said the Securities and Exchange Board of India Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has relaxed norms to allow Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) to bring down its stake to 1.99 per cent in the commodity bourse.

MCX in a filing to the BSE said it has received a communication from Sebi, "granting relaxation from the strict enforcement of Regulation 36 of Sebi (ICDR) Regulations 2009 subject to conditions".

The relaxation is granted only for "the limited purpose" to enable FTIL to comply with the Forward Markets Commission order dated December 17, 2013, it said.

"The relaxation has been granted considering the peculiar nature of the case and cannot be construed as a precedent to obtain similar exemptions in future," capital market regulator Sebi said in the communication to the commodity bourse.

Under the Sebi (ICDR) Regulations, Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL) is required to have at least 20 per cent of the post-offer equity share capital of MCX as promoters' contribution till March 2015.

MCX had sought relaxation from this rule to enable FTIL to comply with the FMC's December 2013 order that declared FTIL as unfit to run any exchanges and asked it to reduce its stake to 2 per cent from 26 per cent.

Commodity market regulator FMC had issued this order in the wake of the Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis at FTIL group firm National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).

Jignesh Shah-led FTIL, which is in the divestment process, has already sold a 6 per cent stake in MCX.

Last month, the company had announced that it has signed an agreement to sell 15 per cent of its stake in MCX to Kotak Mahindra Bank for Rs 459 crore.

At present, FTIL is left with a 5 per cent stake in MCX.