Public-promoter confusion: Switches across multiple cos

In many instances, same shareholder is both public and promoter

- SACHIN P MAMPATTA

There have been multiple instances of the same entity appearing as both a public shareholder as well as under the promoter classification in some listed companies.

And this dual-classification happened in the same quarter, according to data compiled by prime-database.com. One example in the December quarter (Q3FY25) is Atcom Technologies (Vikram Anantrai Doshi). There are multiple instances of such companies in previous quarters as well.

This can reflect inadvertent classification errors, spelling differences, or instances where promoters are also trustees of staff pension funds that hold company stakes, which cause their names to appear in more than one place, suggested experts. An email sent to Atcom went unresponded till the time of going to the press.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has moved towards using the income tax permanent account number for classification, which should provide a unique identity for every investor, noted company secretary Gaurav Pingle.