Future’s Biyani challenges Sebi’s ban order in tribunal

ORDER BARRED BIYANI FROM TRANSACTING IN SECURITIES OF FUTURE RETAIL FOR TWO YEARS

MUMBAI: Future Group founder Kishore Biyani on Friday approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), challenging an order that barred him from the securities market for a year, a person aware of the matter said on condition of anonymity.

On February 3, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) barred Biyani and several related entities from accessing the securities market for violating insider trading rules in a case dating back to 2017.

The regulator found Biyani and others involved in insider trading in the shares of group flagship company Future Retail Ltd (FRL) before an announcement about the consolidation of the group’s offline and online home retail business into a single entity.

Following the announcement in April 2017, shares of Future Retail hit a record high.

On the same day that Sebi issued the ban order, Future Corporate Resources Pvt. Ltd, a Future group promoter entity and one of the parties named in the order, said that it will challenge the order.

“The Sebi order is untenable since it treats a well-anticipated and publicly well-known impending reorganization of the home furnishing businesses that the Future Group effected in 2017 to be unpublished information. The order will be challenged in exercise of the statutory right to appeal,” it had said.

An email sent to a Future group spokesperson remained unanswered till press time.

The Sebi order also barred Biyani from transacting in securities of Future Retail for two years.