(LiveMint)
The stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sought details of a large investment made by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund in the flop IPO of affiliate ICICI Securities Ltd, two people aware of the matter said.
ICICI Securities had to cut its IPO size to Rs3,520 crore from the original target of Rs4,017 crore because of poor investor interest. Of this, a large chunk was bought by ICICI MF. “Queries have been sent to exchanges, merchant bankers and Registrar and Transfer Agents. This is based on the concern that a related party, ICICI MF, has taken a massive exposure to ICICI Securities during its IPO,” said one of the two people cited above. Both declined to be identified.
The queries were sent last week, said the second person, adding that “exchanges are compiling the data and would be responding to the regulator’s queries this week”. Cogencis first reported on 13 April that ICICI Prudential was the largest buyer in the ICICI Securities share sale.
