Sebi holds back GoAir, Aditya Birla MF’s IPOs | Economic Times

Mumbai: Markets regulator Sebi has put two applications for launching IPOs — by GoAir (now named Go First) and Aditya Birla MF — on hold without assigning any reason. Market players, however, said that there are ongoing investigations against group entities, and not against these companies that have filed the offer documents with the Sebi, and hence the delay in getting a clearance from the regulator.Sebi’s latest updates on the status of offer documents filed for fund-raising from the public showed that its observations on the offer document by Aditya Birla MF was ‘kept in abeyance’. Sebi gave the same reason against GoAir’s IPO. Sebi usually keeps its nod to a fund-raising plan in abeyance if there is any regulatory investigation against a company or its group companies.According to GoAir’s IPO document, Sebi is investigating its group company Bombay Dyeing about financial irregularities and fraud relating to a scheme of arrangement between Bombay Dyeing and SCAL Services. The investigation was started on a complaint by one of Bombay Dyeing’s shareholders. In May, GoAir filed the draft prospectus with Sebi to raise an estimated Rs 3,600 crore.In case of Aditya Birla MF, two of its sponsors — Aditya Birla Capital and the Indian arm of Sun Life Group of Canada — planned to offer 3.9 crore shares of the company to reduce their combined stake by about 13.5%. Sebi is reportedly investigating a series of deals between Aditya Birla Finance, a group company of the fund house that has applied for an IPO, and the promoters of CG Power, the Thapar family. The deals date back to 2016.