The stupendous wealth of the Essar group is created out of public money. It is the story of two brothers who turned into major industrialists by repeatedly raising public money, using existing listed companies to spawn new ones, spinning them off and raising money again or getting listed entities to provide guarantees to raise funds in their unlisted private companies. A combination of...

Who are the investors that Essar Steel is dumping and why do they feel short-changed? Well, listen to this story. Hemendra Shah (name changed) bought Essar Steel shares in 1992 at Rs150. As its fortunes slid, the company made two rights issues at Rs60. Two years ago, as part of capital restructuring, it reduced every 100 shares owned by an investor to 60. This means that investors actually...

Last week, SEBI triumphantly announced to the world that the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has, in fact, been fairly supportive of its decisions. The announcement was backed by an internal research paper that “tabulated the result of appeals preferred before SAT” from the year 2000 to 2006. The conclusion: 80% of SEBI’s orders have been upheld even if the penalty has been reduced in the...