AIF investments rise to Rs 20,600 cr

Investments made by AIFs have risen to more than Rs 20,600 crore at the end first quarter of the current fiscal, a surge of 13 per cent from the preceding three months.
Year-on-year, the AIF investment has more than doubled from Rs 9,095 crore at the end of June last year.
Alternative Investment Funds are a class of pooled-in vehicles for investing in real estate, private equity and hedge funds; 235 such funds are registered with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) since 2012.
The investment by AIFs stood at Rs 20,667 crore as of June 30, as compared to Rs 18,237 crore at the end of March 31, according to latest data available with Sebi.

The Category I AIFs poured in Rs 3,074 crore, Category II Rs 13,776 crore and Category III Rs 3,816 crore.
The regulator notified in May 2012 the guidelines for this class of market intermediaries. At the end of December 2012, they pumped in just Rs 20 lakh which has now jumped to more than Rs 20,000 crore.

AIFs are funds established or incorporated in India for the purpose of pooling in capital from Indian and foreign investors for investing as per a pre-decided policy.
Under the Sebi guidelines, AIFs can operate broadly in three categories. The Category-I AIFs are those funds that get incentives from the government, Sebi or other regulators and include social venture funds, infrastructure funds, venture capital funds and SME funds.

The Category-III AIFs are those trading with a view to making short-term returns and includes hedge funds, among others. The Category-II AIFs can invest anywhere in any combination but are prohibited from raising debt, except for meeting their day-to-day operational requirements.
These AIFs include private equity funds, debt funds or fund of funds, as also all others falling outside the ambit of above two other categories.
Pitching for drastic changes in norms governing venture capital and private equity funds, a Sebi panel earlier this year suggested favourable tax regime and measures to attract long-term funds from domestic and overseas investors.