New Delhi: Foreign investment cap in corporate bonds lifted Markets regulator Sebi on Tuesday withdrew the 20 per cent limit on investments by Foreign Portfolio Investors in corporate bonds of an entity. In a notification, the regulator said the restriction is being withdrawn in accordance with a circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In June last year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had mandated that no Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) shall have an exposure of more than 20 per cent of its corporate bond portfolio to a single corporate.
However, the central bank in February lifted the restriction in view of market feedback. To give effect to the directions of the RBI, the regulator said provisions of its June 2018 circulars with respect to exposure of more than 20 per cent “stands withdrawn with immediate effect”. Disclosure requirements for significant beneficial ownership Regulator Sebi has revised the disclosure requirements for significant beneficial ownership for various listed entities. The move comes weeks after the corporate affairs ministry amended the rules pertaining to significant beneficial ownership under the Companies Act, 2013.
In December 2018, Sebi issued a circular wherein entities were asked to make disclosures about significant beneficial owners in a prescribed format.
On Tuesday, the markets regulator said the circular is being modified following the amendment of Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Rules by the ministry last month. A revised format for reporting companies to disclose details such as name, PAN and nationality of the significant beneficial owner as well as registered owner, among others, would be put in place by Sebi. “In view of the revised timelines under the amended Rules, the circular shall come into force with effect from the quarter ended June 30, 2019,” Sebi said.
Last month, the ministry amended the significant beneficial ownership rules for companies, putting in place a more clear regulatory framework that would also help identify entities that might be controlled from outside the country. Apart from providing more clear definitions for determining whether an individual or an entity has significant beneficial ownership, corporates will be required to provide the details in a more elaborate manner to the ministry.
