NEW DELHI May 26: Over 400 companies listed on the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) have either quietly shifted offices or packed their bags without informing the exchange.

DSE has now initiated an exercise to trace these companies which are estimated to be sitting pretty on Rs 500 crore raised through public issues.The exchange is banking on the registrars of companies (RoCs) of various regions in which these companies have their registered offices to track them down. ``We are approaching RoCs to get the addresses of these 400 companies,''a senior official of DSE said.

The DSE management noticed the alarming number of companies which were untraceable recently when it despatched its listing fee bills to these companies through a courier agency.

Sources in DSE said that none of these companies were having their offices at the addresses available with the exchange. The bills were returned to the DSE by the courier agency.

``It is a serious matter. We will make all efforts to trace these companies,'' a DSE official said.

Though DSE believes that a large number of these companies may have shifted their offices without bothering to inform the exchange, they do not rule out disappearance of several companies.

These companies are learnt to have outstandings of listing fees running into lakhs of rupees towards the exchange. A significant number of these are understood to be non-banking finance companies (NBFCs).

It may take DSE several months to track down the companies and take action against them for defaulting in payment of listing fee. Since a number of these companies are registered with RoCs outside Delhi, the task becomes all the more difficult.DSE has taken up a major cleaning up exercise to streamline the listing system.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.