Bond Sales, Stock Buybacks to Halt as India Updates Platform

India’s financial market may see key activities from corporate bond sales to share buybacks halt in a seasonally busy season as the nation’s government upgrades the online portal companies use to file regulatory documents.

(Bloomberg) — India’s financial market may see key activities from corporate bond sales to share buybacks halt in a seasonally busy season as the nation’s government upgrades the online portal companies use to file regulatory documents.

The government’s digital platform, used by companies to inform it of key financial developments, will not be available from Jan. 7 to Jan. 22, as its updated version is introduced, according to a statement on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website. The unavailable filing documents include those required by firms to use the money they have raised through bond sales.

This technical issue will act as a ‘shut period for primary issues,” said Jayen Shah, founder of Mavuca Capital Advisors Pvt. About 46 documents for updating information, including the appointment of top executives and name change of a firm, will not be available, which will hinder stock buybacks to debt sales.

“In case a workaround such as manual filing is not devised during the period when e-filing is not allowed, we would see issuers falling under the Companies Act deferring their bond sale plans,” said Shameek Ray, head of debt capital markets at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd. That could hurt many companies’ refinancing plans as typically significant borrowing happens in the last quarter of the financial year, he said.

(Updates with details throughout the story)

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