Generally, promoters pledge shares to raise funds to use it in the same company or for financing projects of group companies.
The promoters remain the same after pledging their shares. These firms are required to make disclosure under Sebi norms so that investors may take well-informed investment decisions.
As on April 30, pledging of shares was seen in as many as 798 out of the 4,268 BSE-listed companies. In comparison, such pledging was witnessed in 570 of the 1,633 NSE-listed firms, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
In order to protect the interest of investors, Sebi has mandated promoters of a listed company to disclose to the stock exchanges about details of the shares held by them as and when pledged, invoked or released with seven working days.
In addition, listed companies are also required to file the shareholding pattern with the stock exchanges on a quarterly basis in a prescribed format, which includes disclosure of number and percentage of shares pledged by promoters.
Such information as and when received by the stock exchanges is put out in the public domain.