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Government allows Indian public companies to directly list shares overseas.

Government allows Indian public companies to directly list shares overseas.

 

Government’s vision for betterment of Indian companies:

In late January 2020 Government of India communicated to media that they are planning to allow direct listing of Indian companies in foreign markets. This will help Indian companies to not only rely on domestic markets but they can also raise capital on large scale from various foreign markets which will help companies in diversification and growth. This move can directly help Indian companies in increasing their turnover and profits.

Till now Indian companies go for the depository receipts to attract investors globally but this is bit unfamiliar amongst the investors globally and been less attractive in recent years. A minimum of 15 Indian companies currently attract foreign investors via ADR’s and GDR’s. These companies includes Reliance Industry, HDFC Bank, Infosys and many others.

 

Green signal by Indian Government:

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced an economic package of ₹ 20 lakh crore under government’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. This is done for the revival of Indian Economy. It is an umbrella of massive ₹ 20 lakh crore economic booster package. The government ensured to provide some relaxation in all the sectors.

To improve “ease of doing business” in India, government allowed Indian public companies to list their shares in foreign markets. This provision will help Indian companies for better valuations, rapid growth and expand their businesses on a large scale. This move will help Indian companies to get funds at a cheaper rate from various foreign markets. This will directly help Indian economy to recuperate in a speedy way.

Government noted private companies that listed Non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on Indian stock exchanges not to be considered as listed companies. It is also expected that this provision is to prevent Indian companies to register themselves in foreign markets like Singapore and London for raising a fund and going global.

 

Existing vs proposed rule:

The existing rule states that companies which are listed on Indian stock markets can only list their company in foreign markets. Whereas, new proposed rule states that there is no compulsion for it. Indian companies can list themselves directly in various foreign markets to raise capital.

Until now, only American Depository Receipt (ADR’s) and Global Depository Receipt (GDR’s) can collect capital from foreign market sources. At least 15 Indian companies follow this mechanism to raise capital from foreign markets. However, this is not much familiar amongst the global investors. To eradicate this the new provision will allow Indian companies to a fresh new issue of shares or sale of existing holdings.

 

Rules and regulation:

All the required rules and regulation for listing an Indian company at abroad will be notified soon by the government. Once the provisions to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Company Law Regulations are passed. Media noted Indian foreign exchange control laws do not require free capital convertibility, and there are other regulatory limits on capital account transactions.

Nevertheless, this proposal has been under discussion for a couple of years between stakeholders and regulators, especially regarding the selection of foreign jurisdiction. SEBI had indicated in 2018 that this route would be open only to the financially sound companies, so that the mechanism could not be used for exploitation. Sources indicated that final rules in this respect would probably be based on the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman noted, this provision of direct listing. If Indian public companies are not available over the globe but will be allowed in permissible jurisdictions.

 

Precautionary measures:

However, the approval will not come without any protections. The Indian government is likely to go along with the recommendations raised by SEBI in 2018. This requires a direct listing of Indian companies in abroad. It had suggested 10 overseas jurisdictions, including the US, UK, Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea for Indian companies to list. The selection was based on the fact that these jurisdictions are part of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), The Anti-Money Laundering Global Task Force (GTF-AML) and IOSCO.

SEBI also suggested that this provision should be available only for financially stable . This will aid  to minimize frauds and manipulation. The firms with a  paid-up capital of 10% will be allowed to list in the foreign market.

The provision of capital raising in an overseas market can also have an impact on the Indian currency market. Since the flow of overseas capital can put pressure on the Indian currency and may lead to volatility. RBI and SEBI can be jointly involved to check this.

 

 

 

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BSE, NSE cut listing fees for SMEs

BSE, NSE cut listing fees for SMEs

 

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, all the sectors have been affected badly but SMEs segments are affected the most. Therefore, during the announcements of details of Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made special announcements related to MSMEs.

 

Reduction in listing fees:

Now to support SMEs and MSMEs, Indian stock exchanges BSE and NSE came forward. They have relaxed listing norms and reduced listing fee for small and medium enterprises by 25%. However, this norms are applicable to both existing and new firms which are looking forward to list on BSE SME platform and NSE SME platform.

 

What are the Current charges?

Currently for SMEs, Rs 25,000 or 0.1 percent of market capitalization of firm is the listing fee charged by BSE. The NSE charges around Rs 10,000 to Rs 45,000, depending on the SME firms market capitalization. Until now, BSE has 322 small and medium companies listed and has raised around Rs 3,278.84 crore from the market. Their market capitalisation is of Rs 15,865.39 crore so far. On the other side, so far only 209 small and medium companies are listed on NSE and have raised over Rs 3,200 crore.

 

What measures have been announced by government?

Due to the covid-19 lock down, many industries are facing problems like job losses and are cash strapped. During this situation, the main concern for MSMEs is that they are not able to restart their operations due to supply issues and non-availability of labour. Last week, while making announcement for packages in tranches, government changed the definition for MSMEs and linked it to the turnover limits of the companies so that their businesses grow with benefits. They announced measures for MSMEs and Rs 3 lakh crore package for collateral free automatic loans with separate funds for equity support.

However, these Rs 3 lakh crore will also be useful for existing borrowers who have over Rs 100 crore turnover and Rs 25 crore outstanding. Fresh loans can be taken by companies up to 20% of their outstanding. These loans have tenure of 4 years, with moratorium repayment period of 12 months. However, the government will also give them credit guarantee of 100 percent which will cover interest and principal to banking and non-banking institutions. Government will give around Rs 4,000 crore funds to Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGFTMSE) with partial credit guarantee to banks. However for expansion of MSMEs, the government will provide corpus of Rs 10,000 crore so that they can also list after expansion.

 

Further Expectations:

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are very cautious while taking any kind of fresh loans, as they are not sure about the demands for their products after all activity resumes. Most of the micro, small and medium businesses and enterprises are expecting from the government, to give them direct relief by waiving their electricity bills and other fixed expenditure such as payment of salaries. However, banks have already reduced their loans such as credit limit. Anil Bhardwaj, Secretary general of federation of Indian micro, small & medium enterprises (FISME) said, for all the small business and enterprises, government will take care of their fixed expenses. MSME industry has three major demand, interest payments, easy access to loans and payments of salaries from the government, during this situation due to COVID-19 lock down.

 

 

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BSE, NSE to launch rupee derivative contracts

BSE, NSE to launch rupee derivative contracts

 

The NSC IFSC  and India INX have introduced rupee derivatives which will help in bringing much needed added liquidity in the economy. This will supplement their customers with several investment options.

The motive behind introduction of rupee derivatives:

The CEO of NSE, Vikram Limaye communicated to the media that the introduction of rupee derivatives will help in the development of (Gujarat International finance tech) GIFT IFSC as a hub of global financial services. This IFSC platform will help in the rupee exposure of non resident participants. This non residents’ participation will also enhance the IFSC’s extended trading hours and USD settlement. They’ve already received permissions for offering securities trading in any currency except the Indian rupee.

 

Importance of introduction of rupee derivatives:

Mr. Limaye added that this measure will enhance the efficiency of Indian rupees’ price discovery. It will be done by eliminating the onshore and offshore markets’ segmentation. It will also allow for trading and hedging using rupee derivatives contracts to their trading partners viz. IFSC entities and banking units. The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did the inauguration of the rupee derivatives contract. The contract will be having a lot size in NSE IFSC – Rs 20 lacs and India INX – Rs 10 lacs and the contract will be settled in cash.

 

The futures and options:

The futures at the NSE IFSC will have in total three monthly expiry contracts . The options at NSE IFSC will have total seven weekly and three monthly expiry contracts. For the other one i.e India INX, there will be in total eleven weekly and twelve monthly contracts. In the past few months due to the corona virus pandemic crisis, there is an acute volatility faced by the currency markets. The introduction of rupee derivative contracts in the IFSC will lead to more stability during these situations.

 

The Contracts:

The chairman of India INX, Ashishkumar Chauhan communicated to the media that the size of contract will be Rs 10 lacs and the trading is made available from 8th May 2020, 3:30 pm IST. The trading is for both the pairs viz. USD-INR and INR-USD. He added that for the USD-INR product, many of the people like the exporters, importers, traders, etc associated with any kinds of businesses have expressed their keen interest. The Gandhinagar GIFT City is the only IFSC situated in India having zero short term, zero long-term, zero stamp duty and zero transaction taxes as of now.

Each and every businessman interested should consider trading and hedging using rupee derivatives contracts at the GIFT City. The MD and CEO of India INX, V Balasubramaniam communicated to the media that he looks towards the best participation of members and international participants. This will be the first launch of offshore Indian rupee derivatives contract.

 

 

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