SEBI slaps Rs 25 crore penalty on Ambani brothers, family members

The Ambanis were accused of raising promoter stake in RIL in January 2000, on the conversion of warrants issued in 1994, without making an open offer as per SAST rules of 1997.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has imposed a joint penalty of Rs 25 crore on Mukesh Ambani, his brother Anil Ambani and their family members for violating guidelines in the year 2000.

The Ambanis were fined after SEBI carried out an investigation into alleged irregularities pertaining to the issue of 12 crore equity shares in January 2000 by Reliance Industries Limited at a price of Rs 75 per share to 38 allottee entities.

According to clause 11(1) of the market regulator's Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers Regulations, 2011, Reliance Industries Limited should have made a public announcement to minority investors from its side if it wanted to additionally acquire over 5% of voting rights in a financial year.

SEBI found that there was no public announcement whatsoever from the Ambanis.

In its order, SEBI said: "It is noted that in the instant matter the noticees have been alleged to have failed to make a public announcement to acquire shares of RIL and deprived the shareholders of their statutory rights/opportunity to exit from the target company and therefore they breached the provisions of Takeover Regulations. Such charges against the noticees make the instant matter grave."