SEBI reduces the face value on debt securities to Rs 1 Lakh

Tags: Economy/Finance

The Capital and Commodity markets regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 28 October 2022, reduced the face value of debt security and non-convertible redeemable preference shares issued on private placement basis to Rs 1 lakh from the current Rs 10 lakh. 

The new guidelines will be applicable from 1 January 2023.

According to SEBI this has been done to increase the participation of investors and which will also enhance the liquidity in the corporate bond market.

What is a Debt securities?

Debt securities is a type of financial document which is issued by a company to borrow money  from the market .The issuers of the debt securities promise that it will  return the money  after a certain time period and  will also pay mentioned  interest on the borrowed money . Some of the examples of the debt securities are bonds, debentures etc. 

What is the face value, tenure and coupon rate of a securities?

Face value is the nominal value which is written on the securities issued by a company. For example a company issues a bond of Rs 100 for a period of 5 years and with an interest rate of 10%. 

Here the face value of the bond will be Rs 100.

The time period for which it is borrowed is called tenure. Here in the example the tenure of the bond will be 5 years.

Rate of Interest mentioned on the bond is called the coupon rate. In this example the coupon rate is 10%.

What is Public and Private Placement of securities?

There are two options for a company which wants to raise capital from the market by selling its securities (shares, bonds, etc). The company can either go for Public offer or can opt for Private placement of its securities.

Public offer means that the company will have to come out with an Initial Public offerings (IPO). The company has to hire a merchant banker which handles the sale of the company's securities to the general public.

IPO refers to the sale of securities of the company for the first time to the public and after the IPO the company's securities are listed on a stock exchange.  Public offering is a time consuming process and also costly for the company. 

Private Placement 

There is another option for the company. The company can directly approach select investors like Banks, Mutual funds, High Net worth Investors (HNI) and sell the company securities to them.   The company does not need to list security on a stock exchange after the private placement. 

This method is less time consuming and less costly for the company .

SEBI 

Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was set up on 12 April 1988 and it was given statutory status by the SEBI Act 1992 on 30 January 1992.

• It comes under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
• It is the regulator of the Capital market and Commodities market in India.
• The first SEBI chairman was Dr S A Dave (1988-90)
• Madhabi Puri Buch is the current and 10th Chairperson of the SEBI.
• Headquarters: Mumbai