Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Foreign investment in India by SEBI registered FIIs in other securities


Earlier in a Circular dated April 29th  2011,(Click here to view) the limit for FII investment in non-convertible debentures / bonds issued by Indian companies in the infrastructure sector was enhanced from USD 5 billion to USD 25 billion. This was subject to the conditions that such instruments shall have a residual maturity of five years and above, the investments would have a lock-in-period of three years and ‘infrastructure’ would be as defined under the extant External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) policy.

Later through another circular dated August 9th 2009, (Click here to view) it was decided that Qualified Foreign Investors as defined therein (QFIs) were allowed to invest in units of Mutual Funds debt schemes upto a limit of USD three billion within the overall limit of USD 25 billion for FII investment in non-convertible debentures / bonds issued by Indian companies in the infrastructure sector.

RBI has vide a circular dated November 3rd 2011, had decided that:

1.     FIIs would also be allowed to invest in non-convertible debentures / bonds issued by Non-Banking Financial Companies categorized as ‘Infrastructure Finance Companies’(IFCs) by the Reserve Bank of India within the overall limit of USD 25 billion.
2.    The lock-in-period of three years for FII investment stands reduced to one year up to an amount of USD 5 billion within the overall limit of USD 25 billion. This lock-in-period shall be computed from the time of first purchase by FIIs.
3.   The residual maturity of five years and above stipulated would now onwards refer to the original maturity of the instrument at the time of first purchase by an FII.
4.   The above changes at (i) and (iii) above would also apply for QFI investment in units of Mutual Fund debt schemes within the limit of USD three billion.

Click here to view the Circular

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