MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Monday imposed a fine Reliance Industry and its two compliance executives for violating fair disclosure norms during Facebook’s $5.7 billion investment in its digital entity 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.
SEBI said that Reliance did not disclose the deal even after publishing price-sensitive details about the upcoming investment in March 2020, which led to a rally in its shares.
Reliance did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.
“When pieces of (unpublished price-sensitive information) became selectively available, the company waived its responsibility to verify and come clean on unverified information,” Sebi said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 Rs 30 lakh ($38,522) on Reliance and two compliance officers. ($1 = Rs 77.8780)
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