Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Economic Affairs

Rajya Sabha

Unstarred Question No. 199

To be answered on 04^th February 2020

Investment by foreign private equity firms

199. SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR:

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

(a)Whether Government is aware that certain foreign private equity firms are investing in companies as equity at artificial valuation but structuring it as fixed return debt where valuation has no significance thus leading to risk of price rigging to follow on investors; and

(b)The details of regulatory response to investing firms that do this?

ANSWER

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance

(Shri Anurag Singh Thakur)

(a)and (b) The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the regulator for the securities market in India. The complaints/alerts from surveillance system/references from various agencies pertaining to possible market manipulation or insider trading received by it are referred to Exchanges for their comments. In cases where prima facie evidence of possible manipulation, inside trading or violation of SEBI Act/Rules/Regulations is noticed, SEBI conducts investigation to examine alleged or suspected violations of laws and Regulations relating to the securities market, including suspected violation of Prohibition of Fraudulent and unfair trade practices Regulations. Appropriate enforcement actions are taken by SEBI under the provisions of the SEBI Act, 1992 and Regulations framed thereunder, in cases of violations by any Foreign Private Equity Firm or any other entity.

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