FPI - ECONOMY

News: The amount FPIs have put in Indian equities in May so far

 

What's in the news?

       30,945crore have been put in Indian equities by the FPIs. This came following a net infusion of ₹11,630 crore in equities in April and ₹7,936 crore in March.

 

Foreign Portfolio Investments:

       Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in India are non-residents or NRIs who invest in Indian securities such as shares, bonds, mutual funds, convertible securities, etc.

       They do not have direct or active ownership or control of these assets, but rather passive ownership.

 

Features:

       According to Arvind Mayaram Committee (2014), FPI results in an investor controlling less than 10% of the shares of the company.


Regulations:

       FPIs are registered with SEBI and can invest in Indian securities as per the regulations prescribed by SEBI.

       The Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA) is the primary legislation governing FPI in India and has been amended several times to liberalize FPI regulations in India.

 

Proposals of SEBI:

It categorizes FPIs into low risk, moderate risk and high risk.

       The low risk would cover government and government-related entities such as central banks or sovereign wealth funds.

       Moderate risk refers to pension funds or public retail funds with widespread and dispersed investors.

       All other FPIs are categorized as high-risk.

       Additional disclosure requirements for high-risk FPIs holding more than 50% of their equity asset under management (AUM) in a single corporate group.

       The existing high-risk FPIs with an overall holding in the Indian equity market of over Rs 25,000 crore comply with the disclosure mandate within six months. Failing this, they would have to bring down their holding within the threshold.

 

Go back to basics:

FDI and FPI:

1. FDI:

       Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is the investment of a person who is not a resident of India in capital instruments.

a.       in a listed or an unlisted Indian company.

b.      on a fully diluted basis, 10% or more of a listed Indian company's post-issue paid-up equity capital.

2. FPI:

       'Foreign Portfolio Investment' refers to any capital instrument investment made by a person residing outside of India that is

a.       less than ten percent of a listed Indian company's fully diluted post-issue paid-up share capital OR

b.      less than 10% of the paid-up value of each series of a listed Indian company's capital instrument.