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In 2022, in its order, Sebi had alleged that during its investigation it had gathered that there was a lot of news flow around Facebook investing in Jio in March and April 2020, prior to the corporate announcement made on April 22, 2020.
In 2020, RIL made three separate announcements in April and May about Facebook investing ₹43,574 crore in Jio Platforms for a 9.99% stake, Silver Lake investing ₹5,655 crore for 1.15 % stake and Vista Equity investing ₹11,367 crore in a subsidiary company for 2.32% stake. “It was observed that the first news about impending Jio-Facebook deal was published in the Financial Times (FT), London, on March 24, 2020 post market hours and, thereafter, the said news report of FT was widely circulated in Indian media on the same day and the next day,” Sebi had said in its order.
The regulator said the news articles stated that Facebook is seeking to buy a multibillion-dollar stake in Reliance Jio, Facebook was close to signing a preliminary deal for a 10% share in Jio, a deal with Facebook was due to be announced in March-end, coinciding with the end of the Indian financial year. Post publication of said news articles, the scrip price of the company went up by almost 15% on March 25, 2020, Sebi had said.
The regulator had also said there were many other news articles that appeared in the media relating to Jio-Facebook deal prior to its corporate announcement by the company.
“… in our view, it was the responsibility of the RIL to have made prompt disclosure to make information generally available, when it was disclosed selectively in certain media by unknown sources, which had ostensibly reached to only selected universe of subscribers of such international print media and not to all investors / potential investors. Moreover, in such times of uncertainty, in the interest of protecting its shareholders, it was the duty caste upon the company to make due disclosure to clear the dust,” said the SAT bench presided over by Justice PS Dinesh Kumar.
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https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/sat-upholds-sebi-order-penalising-ril-2-execs/articleshow/120839786.cms
