Metropolitan Stock Exchange's warrants likely to expire by itself on June 19 due to lack of buyers

MUMBAI: The warrants that Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) holds in the Metropolitan Stock Exchange (formerly MCX-SX) will die a natural death on June 19 due to the lack of buyers. MCX has been holding on to the Rs 60-crore warrants since mid-2010. Then, roughly 30% equity shares of Financial Technologies and MCX in MCX SX, was converted into warrants to meet Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) norm. According to the norms, shareholders other than certain institutions cannot hold more than 5% stake in an exchange.

At that point, MCX SX promoters, FTIL and MCX held a little over 70%, with banks and institutions holding the rest. The promoters, led by Jignesh Shah, devised a share reduction plan to bring down the voting rights to 10%. But they would hold warrants amounting to some 60% of the undiluted capital. Such a re-structuring had generated much controversy. These warrants were to be disposed off within a period of three years from the date of notification of SECC Regulations i.e. by June 20, 2015. MCX did not respond to an email query over the issue.