India fines Reliance for not immediately disclosing 2020 Facebook deal
Mumbai:
India’s markets regulator on Monday fined Reliance Industries and its two compliance officers for violating due disclosure norms during Facebook’s $5.7 billion investment in its digital arm in 2020.
In April 2020, Meta’s Facebook invested $5.7 billion in Reliance’s Jio Platforms, with the aim of allowing WhatsApp to provide payment services to millions of small businesses. The deal helped billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance reduce its heavy debt burden.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said that Reliance did not disclose the deal even after newspaper reports in March 2020 published price-sensitive details about the impending investment that propelled its shares.
Reliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.
“When the bits of (unpublished price-sensitive information) that then became selectively available, the company waived its responsibility to verify and come clean on unverified information,” Sebi said in its order late Monday.
SEBI said it was “imperative” on Reliance to give a “proper explanation on its own” after learning of the “selective availability” of the information.
The regulator imposed a fine of INR 30 lakh on Reliance and two compliance officers.
($1 = 77.8780 Indian Rupee)
(Reporting by Abhiroop Roy; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)