Sebi extends deadline for new foreign investment limits monitoring system

Markets regulator Sebi today extended deadline till May 18 for putting in place a new system for depositories to monitor the foreign investment limits in listed Indian companies.

The earlier deadline was May 1.

In a circular issued today, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said: "The new system for monitoring foreign investment limits in listed Indian companies shall be made operational on May 18, 2018".

Besides, the regulator has given more time to companies to provide the necessary data to the depositories. Now, they need to submit the data by May 15 from the earlier deadline of April 30.

Under the new rules, the system for monitoring the foreign investment limits in listed Indian companies will be implemented and housed at the depositories - NSDL and CDSL.

 

A company will have to appoint any one depository as its designated depository for the purpose of monitoring the foreign investment limits.

Stock exchanges -- BSE NSE and MSEI -- will have to provide the data on the paid-up equity capital of the company to its designated depository.

This data includes the paid-up equity capital of the company on a fully diluted basis - total number of shares that would be outstanding if all possible sources of conversion are exercised.

The depositories need to provide an interface wherein a firm will have to give information including Company Identification Number (CIN), details of shares held by FPI, NRIs and other foreign investors in demat as well as in physical form, details of indirect foreign investment which are held in both demat and physical form.

In an event of any change in any of the details pertaining to the company, such as increase or decrease of the aggregate FPI or NRI limits or the sectoral cap or a change of the sector of the company, the firm needs to inform such changes along with the supporting documentation to its designated depository.

A red flag will be activated in case total foreign investment in a company is within 3 per cent or less than 3 per cent of the sectoral cap.

Further, depositories need to inform the exchanges about the activation of the red flag for the identified scrip. Also, the exchanges will issue the necessary notifications on their respective websites.