On 26-09-2024, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (‘SEBI’) notified the SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) (Third Amendment) regulations, 2024 to amend the SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014. These Regulations came into force on 27-09-2024. However, Regulation 3(1) will come into force on 25-11-2024.
Key Points:
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The 2024 Regulations has amended Regulation 18(16)(c) to provide that the distributions made by the REIT shall be made within five working days from the record date. Earlier, the distributions had to be made not later than fifteen days from the date of declaration.
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Regulation 18(16)(e) has also been amended to include the above-mentioned timeline i.e. the timeline specified in clause (c) of sub-regulation 16.
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By way of amendment, clause (aa) has been inserted in Regulation 22(2) to provide that the voting threshold shall be calculated based on the unit holders present and voting. An explanation to this clause has been added, which says that for determining the unit holders present and voting, the unit holders voting through electronic voting facility and postal ballot should be counted. The same clause has also been added to Regulation 26ZM (2).
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A new proviso to clause (c) of Regulation 22(2) has been added which says that a meeting of the unit holders may be called after giving shorter notice than that specified in clause (c) if consent is granted by writing or in electronic mode. In case of an annual meeting, consent by at least 95 percent of the unit holders will be required and in case of any other meeting, consent by majority of the unit-holders would be required.
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Clause (f) has been inserted in Regulation 22(2) which provides that for all unit holder meetings, the manager should provide an option to the unit holders to attend the meeting through video conferencing or other audio-visual means as well as the option of remote electronic voting.
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Regulation 22(4)(b) has been amended to provide that for any issue taken up in such meetings that require approval from the unit holders, votes cast in favour of the resolution should be fifty percent of the total votes cast for the resolution unless otherwise specified.
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Regulation 22(5) has been amended to provide that in case of any instance taking place under this regulation, approval from unit-holders shall be required and the votes in favour of the resolution should be more than fifty percent of the total votes cast for.
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Sub-regulation (4) has been added in Regulation 26 to state that the manager and trustee must ensure that adequate backup systems, data storage capacity as well as some other arrangements for alternative means of communication are maintained for the records maintained electronically.
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Sub-regulation (5) has been added in Regulation 26 to state that the manager and trustee must ensure presence of a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery site so that the data is maintained and transaction integrity exists.
