Ola electric
IANS

Ola Electric Mobility Limited has received an administrative warning from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The warning was issued due to the company's violation of disclosure norms. The crux of the issue lies in the fact that Ola Electric announced its e-scooter expansion plans first on social media, rather than making the announcement on the stock exchanges as is the norm.

The SEBI warning sent via email on January 7, 2025cited violations of various sections of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. The regulator has urged the EV firm to ensure equal, timely, cost-efficient access to relevant information for all investors" via stock exchanges. The warning read, "By failing to first disseminate the information on the stock exchanges and instead announcing it on social media platforms, you have failed to provide equal and timely access to information to all investors."

The incident that led to this warning occurred on December 2, 2024, when Ola Electric Founder Bhavish Aggarwal posted a video on his social media handle before 10 a.m. In the video, he shared his plan to increase the company's sales network by nearly four times by December 20. However, the company only informed the exchanges post 1.30 p.m on the same day.

SEBI
IANS

SEBI, in its warning letter, stated that The above violations have been taken very seriously. You are warned and advised to be careful in future and improve your compliance standards to avoid recurrence of such instances, failing which appropriate enforcement action may be initiated. The repercussions of this warning were felt in the stock market as well. On Wednesday, at around 10:13 am, the EV company's shares declined 4.78 per cent to Rs 75.38 per share.

Furthermore, Ola Electric's market share declined by 5 per cent on a MoM (month-on-month) basis to 19 per cent in December. It was 24 per cent in November, which led to it being dethroned as the top Indian 2-wheeler EV company. This incident brings to mind the historical case of Nokia, a leading mobile phone company that faced a rapid decline due to strategic missteps. In less than a decade, Nokia emerged from Finland to lead the mobile phone revolution, commanding a global market share of over 40 percent. However, the company began to collapse from within well before any of its competitors entered the mobile communications market.