Error while uploading allotment files possible, says Raha

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) chairman and managing director Subir Raha said the discrepancies in the allotment of shares in the recent public issue may have occurred at "the point where the allotment files were being uploaded on to the national depositories".

He added that the corporation has set up an Investor Relation Cell on Friday to attend to investor grievances.

Raha said investors should appreciate that ONGC was out of the picture once the roadshows were over. "After the roadshows and until the allotment of shares, ONGC was nowhere in the picture. The lead managers and the registrar were handling the issue," Raha said on in Ahmedabad on Thursday evening.

He admitted that while some persons might have taken advantage of the improper allotment, the company could not have done anything about it. "ONGC has the right to interfere and stop allotment, but there was no reason for such a move. I believe the upgraded information and allotment will have been completed by Thursday evening," he said.

Asked as to who was responsible for the impasse, Raha said the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is conducting an investigation into the matter and will take appropriate action. "But still, if there is any mismatch in allotment of shares, investors can contact the Investor Relation Cell to sort out problems," Raha said.

Raha said that while J M Morgan Stanley, DSP Merrill Lynch and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company were the lead managers to the issue, MCS was the registrar.

"It was the biggest public issue ever and the lead managers and registrar worked extremely hard in the past fortnight. We should recognise this fact," Raha said.