Devarshi Ltd. made a private placement of its securities during F.Y. 2023-24, by offering it, as follows: Type Security Number of persons to whom…

According to Rule 14 (2) of the Companies (Prospectus and Allotment of Securities) Rules, 2014, an offer or invitation to subscribe securities under private placement shall not be made to persons more than two hundred in the aggregate in a financial year. It is provided that any offer or invitation made to qualified institutional buyers, or to employees of the company under a scheme of employees' stock option as per provisions of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 62 shall not be considered while calculating the limit of two hundred persons. As per Explanation given in this Rule, it is clarified that the restrictions aforesaid would be reckoned individually for each kind of security that is equity share, preference share or debenture. Here, in the given case, Devarshi Ltd. had made a private placement of its equity shares as well as of the debentures. The limit of 200 persons would be counted separately for both such type of security and in that also securities offered to persons under employees' stock option shall not be counted. Accordingly, on that basis, further number of persons to whom Devarshi Ltd., could have offered its securities under private placement during F.Y. 2023-24, would be as follows: Type of Security Number of persons to whom securities offered Further persons to whom securities could have been offered under private placement Equity Shares 190 (210 – 20 persons, to whom offered under employees' stock option) 10 Debentures 50 150