Sebi relief for P&G in Gillette case

The capital market regulator on Thursday approved Gillette India promoter S K Poddar's and Proctor & Gamble's proposal to classify Poddar family's stake in the company as public shareholding. Poddar family holds 12.8% stake in P&G and along with parent's 75.9%, the combined holding was more than the minimum public float norms.  They were required to dilute stake in the company to raise the public shareholding to the desired level.

But the family had failed to comply with the minimum public shareholding norm and Sebi cracked a whip by freezing about 55 percent of the combined voting rights of P&G and Poddar in Gillette India. Sebi guidelines on listed companies say that the ratio of promoter and public shareholding must be 75:25, or 3:1.
In order to avoid any open offer, P&G and Poddar family had made presentations to shift the Poddar family holding to public shareholders which removes hangover of any open offer. Sebi approved the proposal with additional conditions:
1) Poddar group shall have no special rights in Gillette.
2) Entities belonging to Poddar group shall not any ket management position in Gillette India.
3) If Poddar group wants to be classified as promoters of GIL, they shall be required to make open offer.
4) Poddar family can not acquire any shares on GIL for 1 year.