On Thursday, The Board of market regulator, SEBI approved the proposals with respect to framework of Innovators Growth platform (IGP) under SEBI (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018, with an objective to make the platform more accessible to companies in view of the evolving start-up ecosystem. As per the press release issued by SEBI, key proposals approved by the board were present eligibility requirement under IGP, for issuer to have 25% of pre-issue capital held by eligible investors for two years period, is reduced to one year. Board also approved, renaming of term ‘Accredited Investor’ for the purpose of IGP to ‘Innovators Growth Platform Investors’ and pre-issue shareholding of such investors for meeting eligibility shall be considered for the entire 25% required for meeting eligibility norms.
Further, It has been decided to allow Issuer Company to allocate up to 60% of the issue size on a discretionary basis, prior to issue opening, to eligible investors with a lock in of 30 days on such shares.
Further, for companies listed under IGP framework, stipulation for triggering open offer under Takeover Regulations, 2011, has been relaxed from existing 25% to 49% and in case of delisting under IGP framework shall be considered successful if the post offer acquirer/promoter shareholding, taken together with the shares tendered and accepted, reaches 75% of the total issued shares of that class; and at least 50% shares of the public shareholders are tendered and accepted. For delisting under IGP framework, the Reverse Book Building mechanism shall not be applicable, and for computation of offer price, the floor price will be determined in terms of Takeover Regulations, 2011, along with delisting premium as justified by the acquirer/promoter.
Also for a company not satisfying the conditions of profitability, net assets, net worth, etc., migration from IGP to Main Board requires a company to have 75% of its capital held by QIBs as on date of application for migration. This requirement is now reduced to 50%.