SEBI Puts Aditya Birla AMC’s IPO On Hold: BQ Exclusive

The company’s draft red herring prospectus has been put in abeyance, according to information on the website of the Securities and Exchange Board of India. The regulator hasn’t cited any reason and emailed queries to SEBI remained unanswered.

The IPO approval has been put on hold for 30 days since SEBI has issued a show-cause notice to a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Capital Ltd., the holding firm, in the last three weeks, three executives aware of the development told BloombergQuint. It’s the process followed when SEBI has an investigation pending against a group company or its affiliates, the people said on the condition of anonymity as details are not public. SEBI is said to have sent the show-cause notice to Aditya Birla Finance Ltd., the group’s non-bank lending arm, the people said.

A spokesperson for the Aditya Birla AMC said, “Given the diversified nature of our financial services businesses, there are various regulatory clearances required unrelated to the AMC entity. This approval process is taking longer than expected and we are working with SEBI on the next steps of the IPO process.”

The asset manager had filed its DRHP on April 19. The regulator sought a clarification and company responded on June 9.

Aditya Birla Capital and its partner Sun Life Asset Management Co. planned to sell 13.5% stake in the IPO. Aditya Birla Capital is the parent of Aditya Birla AMC and Aditya Birla Finance.