Rating agency Crisil has sought approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to sell five per cent of its stake in NCDEX to JM Financial Trustee Company, to meet the regulatory standards.
Currently Crisil, a subsidiary of global rating agency Standard & Poor's, has 12 per cent stake in agri-commodity bourse NCDEX. It has to reduce it to five per cent by September-end to meet the FIPB norms.
According to a senior government official, "Crisil has approached FIPB, which in turn has sought comments from the Consumer Affairs Ministry about the stake sale of Crisil in NCDEX to JM Financial Trustee Company, promoted by J M Financial & Investment."
The Consumer Affairs Ministry, which overseas the functioning of 23 commodity exchanges, is examining the matter and would take the views of the sector regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) in this regard, the official said.
When contacted, Crisil and J M Financial declined to comment.
FIPB is a nodal government agency that monitors foreign direct investment into the country. As per the news norms, foreign entities are not allowed to hold more than five per cent stake in domestic commodity exchanges.
FIPB has set the deadline of September 30 for foreign firms to offload their extra stake in commodity bourses.
Earlier this year, Fidelity reduced its stake in MCX from nine per cent to five per cent to meet FIPB norms.
Last year, ICE and Goldman Sachs, which currently hold 4 per cent each in NCDEX, together sold five per cent in NCDEX to leading sugar refined Shree Renuka.
