Coffee Day Enterprises pays Rs 69 lakh to settle case with SEBI

Coffee Day Enterprises has paid Rs 69 lakh to settle a case, pertaining to alleged disclosure norm violations, with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Following issuance of a show cause notice, the company filed an application dated February 18 this year for settlement under the SEBI (Settlement Proceedings) Regulations, 2018.

One of the allegations against the company was that no limited review report was placed before the board of directors at its meetings dated November 13, 2019 and January 29, 2020 wherein the financial results for the quarters ending June 30, 2019 and September 30, 2019 were approved, respectively.

Further, the company submitted unaudited financial results for the quarters ended June 30, 2019 and September 30, 2019, but the same were not subjected to limited review by its statutory auditors.

"Noticee was, therefore, alleged to be in violation of Regulations 33(3)(c)(i) and 33(3)(h) of LODR Regulations," it said.

Another allegation was that on January 23, 2020, the company had disclosed to the stock exchanges that they entered into the Definitive Agreement to sell Way2Wealth Securities Private Ltd, including its certain subsidiaries, to Shriram Ownership Trust, subject to the closing conditions and required statutory approvals.

"However, the details of sale of Way2Wealth as stipulated in the SEBI circular No CIR/CFD/CMD/4/2015 dated September 9, 2015 were not disclosed by the company," the settlement order said.

On enquiry, the company which runs Cafe Coffee Day chain claimed that the details of sale of Way2Wealth were emailed to stock exchange on January 31, 2020. However, NSE clarified that the company did not file the details on the dedicated NEAPS portal of filing for dissemination.

Subsequently, the company informed that it uploaded the details of sale of Way2Wealth to the stock exchanges on August 31, 2020 and the same was not uploaded earlier as the company was about to intimate after getting final approvals from the statutory regulators and completion of sale process.

"Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd made a payment of Rs 69,06,250 towards settlement amount by way RTGS Fund transfer on August 27, 2021 as per the settlement terms approved by the Panel of Whole Time Members," it said.

The SEBI order said that post the settlement the pending adjudication proceedings initiated against Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd has been disposed of.