Foreign Investors Keen On REITs, InvITs, Says SEBI
REITs and InvITs have more than $10 billion asset size as on today, according to SEBI.
Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman Ajay Tyagi and other officials met foreign investors in U.S. last week and saw keen interest from them in emerging areas such as real estate investment trusts and infrastructure investment trusts, which have a total asset size of more than $10 billion.
The interactions with various stakeholders, including industry and investor associations, were held in New York, Boston and Washington D.C. during the week from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, markets regulator SEBI said in a statement on Monday.
“We met various stakeholders during the meetings. The participants welcomed various initiatives taken by SEBI,” Tyagi said in the statement.
During the meeting, the regulator found that “the participants were keen on emerging areas such as REITs and InvITs, which have more than $10 billion asset size as on today.”
Several participants also showed interest in the Alternative Investment Fund space with its relaxed foreign investment norms wherein the investments have rises by more than 15 times in the past five years.
SEBI discussed upcoming regulatory measures related to frameworks for issuing depository receipts, direct listing of Indian equities abroad, and regulatory sandbox, among others.
Besides, discussions were also held on recent policy measures taken by SEBI related to various areas such as foreign portfolio investors, primary market, secondary market, mutual funds, and corporate bond market.
Considering that about a third of the total assets of around $450 billion under the custody of FPIs in India are from the U.S., the SEBI chief emphasised importance of U.S. investments into India.
The regulator also said the increasing number of registrations of FPIs every year signifies the sustained interest of the foreign investors in the Indian capital markets.
During the meetings, Tyagi briefed the participants on key aspects, trends and recent developments in the India economy from a broader perspective and on Indian capital markets, in particular.
The achievements of both Indian primary markets and secondary markets were brought out in the meetings. This included more than $120 billion raised through equity and debt in each of the past two years, market capitalisation of Indian listed firms being in the top-10 global markets, and Indian stock exchanges ranked in top-10 in the number of contracts in equity derivatives.