The company was demerged 10 months back though it is yet to be listed; SEBI approved the listing after eight months but now BSE is yet to give its nod

The dwindling population of retail investors in India is time and again made to suffer due to wrongdoing by companies. Often, buybacks, delisting & demergers are announced, resulting in a sudden spurt in the share price and then the company defers from actually going through with the announcement, leaving small-time investors mired in losses.

Take the case of Five X Finance and Investment Limited, a demerged arm of Octant Industries, (formerly listed as ‘Octant Interactive’ on the BSE, or Bombay Stock Exchange), which has not yet been listed for more than 10 months now.

Octant Interactive Technologies Ltd demerged its financial division business and vested in Five X Finance and Investment Ltd, with a whopping 80% of its capital as per the demerger agreement, on 7 December 2010. However, the company has still not received approval from the BSE. This has left retail investors in the lurch with a majority of their capital stuck in the unlisted firm.

Moneylife had earlier reported on how the delay in listing of Five X, due to delay in approval by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), had left investors trapped in the unlisted company. (See: Post de-merger, Octant Interactive shareholders still await listing of spun-off business ).

Now after eight months, the market regulator has given listing approval to the company. But this time it is the BSE which is yet to give its nod.

In a filing with the BSE, dated 2 September 2011, Octant Industries said,
“The demerged Undertaking/Resulting Company ‘Five X Finance and Investment Ltd’ has revived the approval under 19(2) (b) SC (R) Rules, 1957 from SEBI for listing the company with stock exchanges.”

It added, “Post the approval from SEBI, the company is under the process of obtaining listing approvals with the concerned exchange (BSE).”

Here again, retail investors are at the receiving end of the deal. “Now they are waiting for permission from BSE, but in the past 45 days there is no update or sign from the company regarding permission from the BSE. And we (investors) don’t have any other way as the company is not responding to email from investors as usual, and there is no other way we can contact them and get an update about the listing procedure. It is really a horrible experience as our entire money is stuck in Five X as the ratio was 80% to 20%,” complained an investor who had invested in Five X, who spoke to Moneylife preferring anonymity.

As per the Scheme of Agreement, post the demerger, Octant Interactive Technologies Ltd’s shareholders got 4 shares in Five X Finance and Investment for every 5 shares in Octant Interactive which they held. For every 5 shares of Octant Interactive, the equity holder was to receive 1 share of Octant Industries, each share with face value of Rs10. In other words, the shareholders of Octant Interactive were given 80% of their current holding in Five X Finance and 20% in Octant Industries. This effectively reduced shareholder stake in Octant Industries.

Industry experts say that investors are suffering with the majority of their capital stuck in unlisted firms solely due to delay in SEBI and stock exchange approval.

Interestingly, Octant Industries, which got only 20% capital, was successfully listed on 7 February 2011.   

Five X says that it is awaiting BSE’s approval. When asked about the investors’ money, a company official told Moneylife, “We can’t do anything unless we get listing approval from the BSE.”

An email query to BSE did not solicit any reply till the time of publishing this story.