On April 24, 2009, SEC issued a circular amending certain provisions of the Equity Listing Agreement that all listed companies are required to comply with. The key amendments are listed below:

– A uniform procedure has been created for dealing with shares that lay unclaimed after public issues;

– The notice period for all corporate actions such as dividend, bonus, etc. has been uniformly reduced for all scripts, whether in demat or physical, whether in futures & options segment or not. The notice period for record date has been reduced to 7 working days and for board meeting to 2 working days;

– The declaration of dividend by companies is now mandated on a per-share basis. This is to avoid inconsistencies created due to differences in par value of shares issued by companies; and

– The format for disclosure of shareholding pattern under Clause 35 of the listing agreement has been amended to reflect distinct patterns for each class of shares separately.