The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had, in early August, issued a circular amending its Initial Public Offer (IPO) guidelines to make it mandatory for IPOs through the book-building route, to start trading on the sixth day of the book closure date. It had also imposed a ‘blackout’ period on research reports during the 45 days immediately preceding the filing of the draft offer document with SEBI and extending up to 45 days after the commencement of trading in shares.

However, it has now decided to put on hold these two changes made to the SEBI (Disclosure and Investor Protection) (DIP) Guidelines, ‘00. A SEBI release said it has received representations from market players saying that infrastructure and software systems are required to be upgraded before shifting to T+6 norms. A request for more time to put systems to implement T+6 norms in place before implementing the provision was also made, added the report.

Also, SEBI has decided not to black out research reports 45 days before and after a public issue. All other changes made to the guidelines will be applicable.

There has however been some watering down of the initial proposals/ changes- e.g. SEBI has decided not to charge any margins from institutional players during an IPO, though the primary market advisory committee favoured such a requirement.