INTRODUCTION

As a positive step towards further rationalizing the listing of Debt Securities¹, Indian capital markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) has vide circular SEBI/IMD/BOND/1/ 2009/11/05 dated May 11, 2009 (this “Circular”) put in a place a simplified listing agreement for listing of corporate Debt Securities (“Debt Listing Agreement” / “Listing Agreement”).

This Circular follows major reformative measures in corporate debt market initiated by SEBI last year with the introduction of Debt Issuance Regulations. Please refer to our earlier hotlines ‘Indian Debt Market - Ready to fly high!!!’ dated June 23, 2008² and ‘Indian Corporate Debt Market – All set for a revamp’ dated January 5, 2008³ for related analysis.

HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM THE ERSTWHILE DEBT LISTING AGREEMENT?

While the compliances under the erstwhile debt listing agreement were dependent on the modes of issuance of debt securities viz. private placement or public / rights issue, the new Listing Agreement provides for disclosure and other compliances depending on the nature of entity issuing Debt Securities viz. listed company vis a vis an unlisted company, irrespective of the mode of issuance.

Further, a number of compliances under the erstwhile debt listing agreement, which also figured in the equity listing agreement and resulted in possible duplications, have been done away with in the revised Listing Agreement. Rationalized disclosure norms and simplified listing seems to be the main idea behind introduction of the new Debt Listing Agreement.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS CIRCULAR

This Debt Listing Agreement comprises of two parts - Part A prescribes additional disclosures relevant to Debt Securities and is applicable to companies whose equity shares are already listed on Indian stock exchanges and Part B which contains relatively detailed disclosures is applicable to companies whose equity shares are not listed.

The rationale behind the bifurcation of Debt Listing Agreement seems to be to avoid duplication. In case of a listed company vast amount of information about the company and its operations would already be available to the public pursuant to the equity listing agreement and therefore minimal disclosures as prescribed in Part A should suffice.

Key compliances under Part A and Part B of the Debt Listing Agreement.

While it is too premature to identify whether the new Listing Agreement would achieve its objective of simplifying the listing compliances without compromising on the quality and adequacy of disclosures, it is definitely a welcome move. With the investments into equity turning out to be more volatile and the global economy taking a downturn, such positive steps are expected to generate an increased interest by companies and investors around the debt segment.

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1. As per Regulation 2(1) (e) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue and Listing of Debt Securities) Regulations, 2008, debt securities means a non-convertible debt securities which create or acknowledge indebtedness, and include debenture, bonds and such other securities of a body corporate or any statutory body constituted by virtue of a legislation, whether constituting a charge on the assets of the body corporate or not, but excludes bonds issued by Government or such other bodies as may be specified by the Board , security receipts and securitized debt instruments;
2. http://www.nishithdesai.com/corporate-update/2008/CorpSec-Hotline-Jun-23-2008.html
3. http://www.nishithdesai.com/corporate-update/2008/CorpSec-Hotline-Jan-5-2008.html
4. The compliances and disclosures under this Part A is over and above the compliances under equity listing agreement

Sources: SEBI circular dated May 11, 2009