Sebi FPI rules: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has put forth a proposal to ease disclosure requirements for certain foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in a move to enhance the ease of doing business.

The proposal, outlined in a consultation paper, aims to exempt university funds and university-related endowment FPIs that meet specific criteria from enhanced disclosure requirements.

Additionally, it suggests exempting funds with concentrated holdings in entities without a promoter group, where there is no risk of breaching Minimum Public Shareholding (MPS) requirements, from enhanced reporting obligations.

Public comment invited

Sebi has invited public comments on the proposals until March 8. This proposal follows Sebi's mandate last year, which required FPIs to disclose detailed information about entities holding any ownership, economic interest, or control in them without any threshold.

While certain FPIs were exempted from the enhanced disclosure requirements, subject to certain conditions, others were required to comply.

The consultation paper recommends exempting university funds and university-related endowments, registered as category-I FPIs, from the disclosure requirements, subject to specific conditions. These conditions include the university being listed in the top 200 rankings as per the latest available QS World University Rankings, among others.

Sebi also proposes an exemption for companies with no identified promoter and low holdings, under certain conditions, to relax additional disclosure requirements. However, Sebi highlighted that concerns regarding circumvention of Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers (SAST) norms would still exist.

(with PTI inputs)