India's Brightcom reviews options after market regulator finds share allotment lapses

FILE PHOTO: A bird flies past the new logo of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) at its headquarters in Mumbai

BENGALURU (Reuters) - India's Brightcom Group said on Wednesday it has set up an internal team to review its options after the market regulator found "manipulations" in its preferential share allotment and barred two top executives from director posts.

The digital marketing company's shares fell about 5%.

India's market regulator said on Tuesday that Brightcom attempted to "cover-up its misdeeds" by submitting forged and fabricated bank statements, which also raised doubts about the authenticity of the company's historical financial disclosures.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) also barred Brightcom CEO M Suresh Kumar Reddy and Chief Financial Officer Narayan Raju from being directors and restrained Reddy from dealing in any securities.

Brightcom said in a statement that it was consulting legal experts and evaluating potential courses of action. But it did not address any of SEBI's allegations and did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

SEBI has previously raised concerns over Brightcom overstating profits. It fined the company and five promoters in June over disclosure and code of conduct violations.

Brightcom's shares fell 4.94% to their lower limit of 23.10 rupees on the day, extending their decline for the year to 21.4%.

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)