Significant Beneficial Owners: India Sneaks Up On Didn't You Get The Memo?

India recently released the Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Amendment Rules, 2018. The Government thereafter modified these rules with the Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Amendment Rules, 2019 (“SBO Rules”) effective from February 8, 2019. Since the idea of ensuring greater accountability and transparency over beneficial ownerships is relatively new, the SBO Rules will have to withstand the test of time

India awaits similarly stumped reactions as that of Earle in Batman Begins, as the revised significant beneficial ownership rules kick in. India recently released the Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Amendment Rules, 2018, implementation of which was suspended because of ambiguities and issues raised by various stakeholders. The Government thereafter modified these rules with the Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Amendment Rules, 2019 (“SBO Rules”) effective from February 8, 2019. The SBO Rules defines a ‘significant beneficial owner’, its applicability and mandates better accountability for corporates.

Who is a ‘significant beneficial owner’?

The SBO Rules envisage to identify individuals, who, acting alone or together or with one or more persons, directly/indirectly holds/has (a) not less than 10% shares, (b) not less than 10% voting rights, (c) right to receive or participate in not less than 10% of any distributions (dividends or otherwise), (d) right to exercise or actually exercises significant influence or control in a reporting company.