New Delhi, Mar 19 (IANS): Markets regulator SEBI has proposed that the disclosures made in the DRHP and RHP of public issues shall also be made available in audiovisual (AV) format by the issuer companies desiring to list on the main board.

Further, the AV on public issues will be in a bilingual version, i.e., English and Hindi, and made available in the public domain.

It is expected that the AV will provide ease in understanding the salient features and also provide reference to the various disclosures of the proposed public issue, SEBI said in a consultation paper.

Companies desirous of raising capital through public issues are required to file a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the SEBI and the stock exchanges.

The disclosures in DRHP are appropriately updated in line with the observations issued by the SEBI and the stock exchanges and thereafter the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP) is filed with the SEBI and the Registrar of Companies (ROC).

The aforementioned disclosures enable investors to make informed decisions while investing in public issues.

In the guidelines for AV, SEBI said the duration of each bilingual version of the AV shall be a maximum of eight minutes.

The total duration of the AV shall be equitably distributed among the material disclosures made under various sections of the public issue offer document viz. risk factors, capital structure, objects of the offer, business of the issuer, financial information, litigations, and material developments.

The content of the AV shall be factual, non-repetitive, and non-promotional in nature.

The AV shall be revised with updated information at the stage of Red Herring Prospectus (RHP), SEBI said.

The AV shall be published by the Issuer/Lead Manager within five working days both at the stage of submission and resubmission of DRHP. It shall be made available on digital/social media platforms of the Issuer and Association of Investment Bankers of India (AIBI).

The web link of the said AV shall be made available on the websites of Stock Exchanges and the concerned Lead Managers and shall also be accessible from the QR code about the public issue.

The Lead Managers to the public issue shall be jointly responsible for the content and information made available in the AV, SEBI said.