ABSL AMC shares fall 4% as SEBI alleges BofA breached insider trading rules in 2024 share sale

ABSL AMC shares see profit booking in trade.

Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management shares on Thursday fell nearly 4 percent after markets regulator Sebi alleged that a Bank of America unit breached insider trading rules in a 2024 share sale.

The stock declined 3.85 percent to an intraday low of Rs 820.85 per share on the National Stock Exchange.

In a notice, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) accused a Bank of America (BofA) unit of violating insider trading norms and breaching internal information barriers, commonly known as "Chinese walls", in connection with a March 2024 share sale of Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management.

The notice followed Sebi’s investigation into the conduct of the bank’s domestic securities unit in managing the transaction.

According to the regulator, the bank’s deal team, while in possession of unpublished price-sensitive information related to the share sale, contacted potential investors directly or indirectly.

At the request of the deal team, the bank’s broking arm, research team and Asia-Pacific syndicate team reached out to investors and shared valuation reports and other confidential information, the October 30-dated notice said.

“The conduct highlights the failure of the deal team to maintain Chinese walls with broking and research arms, impacting safekeeping of confidential information and internal controls,” Sebi said.

The regulator further alleged that the bank suppressed material facts and made false statements during the course of the investigation.

(Inputs from Reuters)

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