Skip to main content

SEBI panel proposes direct listing of Indian firms on foreign bourses

An expert committee set up by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Tuesday recommended that the market regulator allow listing of Indian companies on foreign exchanges even without getting listed in India. Such a framework would help Indian companies to access foreign capital at lower cost, said the report. Under the current regulations, any company incorporated in India but not listed on an Indian exchange is not permitted to list its shares on a foreign stock exchange. Similarly, companies incorporated outside India cannot directly list their equity shares on Indian stock exchanges. The committee in its 29-page report also advised the security markets regulator to allow foreign companies to get directly listed in Indian stock exchanges.
SEBI has sought comments on the report by December 24 "Listing may be allowed only on specified stock exchanges in 'permissible jurisdictions'," read the report submitted to SEBI. A "permissible jurisdiction" would mean a jurisdiction which has treaty obligations to share information and cooperate with Indian authorities in the event of any investigation. The exchanges where Indian companies can list their shares as per the report include the NASDAQ, NYSE in the US, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China, the London Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, among others.
The report further said: "As regards listing of a listed Indian company on foreign stock exchanges, such a company shall comply, at all times, with rules/regulations/laws/initial and continuous listing/disclosure requirements, as are applicable to companies listed in India." Companies incorporated in India, under the present legal framework, have to list their debt securities on foreign stock exchanges directly through the "masala" bonds or foreign currency convertible bonds. On the other hand, companies incorporated outside India can access the Indian capital markets only through the Indian Depository Receipts framework.
According to the panel, along with allowing cheaper access to foreign capital for Indian firms, the permission for listing would also in turn help the Indian economy grow further. "Similarly, equity listings of companies incorporated outside India on Indian Stock Exchanges would improve the efficient allocation of capital and diversification for investors across the Indian economy," said the report. SEBI had constituted the committee to look into the prospects of Indian companies getting directly listed on foreign exchanges on June 12.
The Business standard, 05th December 2018

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Household debt up, but India still lags emerging-market economies: RBI

  Although household debt in India is rising, driven by increased borrowing from the financial sector, it remains lower than in other emerging-market economies (EMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its Financial Stability Report. It added that non-housing retail loans, largely taken for consumption, accounted for 55 per cent of total household debt.As of December 2024, India’s household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 41.9 per cent. “...Non-housing retail loans, which are mostly used for consumption purposes, formed 54.9 per cent of total household debt as of March 2025 and 25.7 per cent of disposable income as of March 2024. Moreover, the share of these loans has been growing consistently over the years, and their growth has outpaced that of both housing loans and agriculture and business loans,” the RBI said in its report.Housing loans, by contrast, made up 29 per cent of household debt, and their growth has remained steady. However, disaggregated data sho...

External spillovers likely to hit India's financial system: RBI report

  While India’s growth remains insulated from global headwinds mainly due to buoyant domestic demand, the domestic financial system could, however, be impacted by external spillovers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in its half yearly Financial Stability Report published on Monday.Furthermore, the rising global trade disputes and intensifying geopolitical hostilities could negatively impact the domestic growth outlook and reduce the demand for bank credit, which has decelerated sharply. “Moreover, it could also lead to increased risk aversion among investors and further corrections in domestic equity markets, which despite the recent correction, remain at the high end of their historical range,” the report said.It noted that there is some build-up of stress, primarily in financial markets, on account of global spillovers, which is reflected in the marginal rise in the financial system stress indicator, an indicator of the stress level in the financial system, compared to its p...

Retail inflation cools to a six-year low of 2.82% in May on moderating food prices

  New Delhi: Retail inflation in India cooled to its lowest level in over six years in May, helped by a sharp moderation in food prices, according to provisional government data released Thursday.Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to 2.82% year-on-year, down from 3.16% in April and 4.8% in May last year, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed. This marks the fourth consecutive month of sub-4% inflation, the longest such streak in at least five years.The data comes just days after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee cut the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.5%, its third straight cut and a cumulative reduction of 100 basis points since the easing cycle began in February. The move signals a possible pivot from inflation control to supporting growth.Food inflation came in at just 0.99% in May, down from 1.78% in April and a sharp decline from 8.69% a year ago.A Mint poll of 15 economists had projected CPI ...