SEBI Bars Biocon's Official From Securities Market For 3-Months; Imposes Fine

Regulator SEBI has restrained an official of Biocon Ltd from accessing the securities market for three months and also levied monetary penalty for contravening insider trading norms.

Biocon had announced information relating to its collaboration with Sandoz and the period of unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) was from December 20, 2017 to January 18, 2018, The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) noted in an order passed late on Wednesday.

Senior vice president of Biocon, Shreehas P Tambe, being an insider traded in the shares of the firm between December 19-27, 2017, in violation of market norms. Besides, Tambe also failed to make the timely requisite disclosures to Biocon pertaining to the trade for the sale of shares on December 19 and 20, 2017, where the sell value was more than Rs 10 lakh.

As part of mandatory obligation under Prohibition of Insider Trading norms, Tambe was required to make disclosure within two trading days from the date of sale of shares but failed to do so within the prescribed time limit. In addition, it was found that at the time of applying for pre-clearance of trades from a compliance officer, Tambe gave a declaration that he is not in possession of UPSI.

As Tambe did possess UPSI, he had given a false declaration to the compliance officer. For violation of market norms, Sebi barred Tambe from the securities market for three months and during this period, he was also restrained from associating himself with any listed public company and any public company which intends to raise money from the public or any intermediary registered with Sebi other than Biocon.

Tambe is also facing a total fine of Rs 2 lakh which needs to be paid within 45 days.

(PTI)