The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has exempted state-owned infrastructure companies and special purpose vehicles from following various provisions of the disclosure and investor protection guidelines to help them raise funds from the capital market. It has also simplified disclosure norms for listed companies by amending Clause 41 of the Equity Listing Agreement.

“The minimum holding requirement of pre-issue capital shall not apply to an offer for sale of equity shares of an unlisted government company, statutory authority, corporation or any special purpose vehicle set up by any of them, which is engaged in infrastructure sector,” Sebi said while amending the Disclosure and Investor Protection (DIP) guidelines. In a normal public issue by an unlisted company, the promoters should contribute not less than 20 per cent of the post- issue capital.

The amendments are aimed at helping government companies and SPVs engaged in sectors like telecom, transport, power, housing, petroleum and natural gas, mining, agriculture, water management and industrial infrastructure to tap the primary market through IPOs. Among other things, the DIP norms for fixing denomination of face value of equity will not apply to infrastructure companies. Under the existing guidelines, an issuing firm can fix the face value of a share below Rs 10 if the issue price is more than Rs 500.

However, if the issue price is below Rs 500, the face value of the equity will have to be Rs 10.