DLF : Barred from market for 3 years

Sebi cracked down on India’s biggest real estate player DLF on Monday by barring the company and its top executives, including chairman KP Singh, from accessing the securities market for three years.

The move, linked to disclosure lapses in 2007 when DLF went public and listed on exchanges, is the latest in a series of setbacks for the company credited with building Gurgaon as a corporate and residential hub on the barren Aravallis, just outside the Capital.In 2007, DLF went public in a record-breaking initial public offering of Rs. 9,187 crore, India’s largest at the time.

The real estate giant has faced a number of problems in recent years, including angry lawsuits by customers upset with project delays and political controversies surrounding the company’s alleged links with Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, whose party lost power earlier this year.

Responding to the order, the company said, “DLF will defend itself to the fullest extent against any adverse findings and measures contained in the order passed by Sebi. DLF has full faith in the judicial process and is confident of vindication of its stand in the near future.”

It was unclear how the firm’s lenders, often the real estate industry’s lifeline, would react to the investigation that looked into charges of failure by the company to properly disclose its relationship with subsidiary firms.