Mumbai, Nov 27: JM Financial & Investment Consultancy Services Ltd, the book runner for Nirma's public issue, has requested SEBI to grant an exemption from disclosing the status of entries in the book at the end of the day, once the bidding period starts.

As per the SEBI guidelines, the book runner has to disclose the demand for the issue on a daily basis. SEBI's rationale in incorporating this regulation was to ensure full transparency during the book building process.

SEBI is said to be examining JM Financial's request and is expected to take a stand in a few days, sources said.

According to the book runner, disclosure of the demand would give rise to discrepancies. They feel that if the demand is disclosed, investors might revise their own bids in their favour. The issuers may also work this out to their advantage by artificially building up the book and exhibit an unwarranted demand for the shares. The book runner has also argued that internationally there is no need to disclose the number of bids once the book opens.

Meanwhile, JM Financial & Investment Consultancy is working on building a software which will link various terminals of the different stock exchanges and give the total number of bids.Another reason as to why the number of bids should not be disclosed at the end of each day, is that it is purely technical. This is because currently, there is no software which would link up all the trading terminals of the various exchanges.Nirma has decided to use the trading terminals of the National Stock exchange, the Over the Counter Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange to provide bidding for the issue. The three exchanges have already prepared the software which is yet to be tested. Meanwhile, due to the prevailing political uncertainty and the depreciating rupee, Nirma's public issue, the first to be launched through a book building route, has been delayed for fear of a poor response from the market. The issue is now expected to be launched in the second quarter of January 1998. The delay has also occured since the lead manager has to secure various regulatory clearances like the RBI clearance which is expected by mid-December and the audit (half yearly account of Nirma Ltd ended September 30, 1997) to be included in the revised offer document.Meanwhile, the lead manager/book runner is planning to commence a new strategy which would include firstly, securing all necessary regulatory clearances, secondly educating the various intermediaries and investors on the company and the book building process, and thirdly decide on the best possible timing of the issue."We hope that the issue will come out by the end of January. Till then we will be educating all the intermediaries and the investors on the company and the entire book building process," said Nimesh Kampani, chairman, JM Financial & Investment Consultancy Services Limited. A mock trial for the first book building process is being organised to test the process.According to the lead manager the price band for the issue will depend on the then prevailing market conditions. Since the company is not in any immediate need for finances and the commissioned projects are progressing as per schedule, there is no hurry to rush up the issue, said Kampani.According to Nirma officials, Enam Financial Consultants withdrew from the syndication for the Nirma issue because they were not allowed a higher allocation which is otherwise the book runner's prerogative.