The issue of director duties and attendant liabilities has been a subject of immense debate as the role of directors evolves in the Indian context. India is perhaps a decade behind the west in this evolution process, though rapidly catching up driven by increasingly proactive proxy advisory firms and institutional capital taking significant positions in Indian companies, though activist funds are still a rarity. Transcendence from ‘complying with their obligations’ to ‘performing their duties’ has probably been most transformational and manifested only in the past couple of years…
We are delighted to share our most recent and comprehensive research paper discussing at length the legal, tax, regulatory, commercial and strategic issues concerning the setting up of India focussed funds. Over the past few years, the investment funds industry has been the subject of a series of legislative and regulatory interventions designed variously to protect investor interests as well as to enlarge the scope of investment activity. From an Indian fund formation perspective, this is evidenced from the introduction of codes of conduct for various stakeholders,…
Infrastructure has been the highest capital receiver in 2021, and InvITs continue to be the most favoured investment vehicle for sponsors and global investors alike. InvITs have received >USD 10 billion of investments in the last couple of years, with investments from some of the largest fund houses. The roads regulator of India (NHAI) has also launched its maiden InvIT – with an EV of >USD 1.1bn and participation from large pension funds (CPPIB and OTPP). KKR has again sponsored another InvIT in the renewables space (Virescent Infrastructure) – raising capital from a clutch of investors led by Alberta Investment Management Corporation…
Special situations and private credit funds have been increasingly looking at the high yield Indian market. With banks facing liquidity and risk issues, alternate capital with customised solutions seem attractive. Structured commonly through collateralised redeemable bonds with pay-outs deferred until maturity, these bonds may have equity kickers built-in as well, in the form of redemption premium linked to any variable, such as underlying equity share price or cashflows. While offshore capital is interested, currency, tax withholdings, enforceability and regulatory risks dampen the return profile on a risk-adjusted dollar return basis…
What’s been missing in India’s InvIT landscape? A product that acts as a true bond proxy, some might say. Well, SEBI’s proposed Restricted Return InvITs delivers just that.
This new product offers risk-averse investors a safe, fixed return, with the downside protected and the upside capped. But it’s not just for investors- sponsors stand to gain too. Any returns beyond the promised payout go straight to them, and if returns dip below expectations, sponsors will have to step in to cover the shortfall.
In this episode of Resolüt Audio, host Payaswini Upadhyay speaks to Ruchir Sinha to examine the proposals, explore how sponsor-investor agreements could evolve and who the target investors are for this product.
Navigating India’s Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regime can be quite complex, especially in public market transactions. The recent shift from an investor-centric regime, which focused on the nature of the investing entity rather than the quantum of the investment, to an investment-based regime, where the investment type determines FPI or FDI status, has only added a layer of confusion.
Questions frequently arise: Can an FPI subscribe to preferential allotments below 10%? Can FDIs participate in IPO rounds? And what happens in cases like Zomato’s – is it possible for the same entity to invest through both FPI and FDI routes in one company?
In this episode of Resolüt Audio, host Payaswini Upadhyay speaks with Samaahith Addoor on some of the crucial FPI-FDI nuances for public market investments.
In the second episode of Resolüt Audio, host Ruchir Sinha speaks with Anandu Unnikrishnan on the key case laws underpinning the Income Tax Department’s recent notices against offshore funds. They examine the material facts and circumstances in each of these cases and lay out practise-based mitigants that offshore investors can adopt. They also examine critical questions surrounding the morality of taxation, the scope for interpretation in tax law, and the need for caution as tax authority continue to gain broad-reaching powers.
Resolüt Audio is our initiative to present to you our analysis on legal and tax issues in a simple and de-jargonized manner through free-flowing conversations.In the first episode of Resolüt Audio, host Raina talks with Ruchir on the recent Supreme Court Judgement in the PTC India case.They talk about the regulation of pledged dematerialized shares and the implications of the PTC judgement while providing a broad overview on the law of pledge and the challenges of reconciling the statutory requirements to dematerialized shares.
Their analysis of the PTC India can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/3AFsrwn
It’s Singapore, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Mauritius vs GIFT City. Or at least that’s the ambition — to be counted in the league of fund-friendly jurisdictions. To that end, the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) has floated draft proposals for fund management activity in GIFT City. Until 2020, the Securities and Exchange Board of India provided a broad framework …
Infrastructure development has been a focal point for the Narendra Modi government. Indian infrastructure has historically failed to attract large offshore capital due to various systemic reasons – one such reason being the lack of a well-governed tax optimal investment structure. To address this, the Securities and Exchange Board of India introduced public or privately listed infrastructure investment trusts allowing for a SEBI governed tax-optimised investment regime…
The Indian infrastructure story has been one of few successes and many challenges. To identify the most optimal route and vehicle that can attract long-term high value private capital in the infrastructure sector, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) rolled out the ‘InvIT’ regime in 2014,
Private equity (PE) investments into India are at an all-time high, with more than $11 billion invested by PE funds in 2017. The keenness now is more towards late-stage companies as compared to growth and venture investments. Fund raising by these late-stage companies has also become sophisticated, with many founders opting to run a bid process, on the back of a proven track record of performance and ethics…
Whilst the markets have given a warm reception to infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) and a spate of InvITs are in the pipeline, the fate of real estate investment trusts (REITs) remains to be seen. REITs still haven’t taken off and there is a degree of morbid scepticism around the success of a REIT.
We are delighted to share our most recent and comprehensive research paper discussing at length the legal, tax, regulatory, commercial and strategic issues concerning the setting up of India focussed funds. Over the past few years, the investment funds industry has been the subject of a series of legislative and regulatory interventions designed variously to protect investor interests as well as to enlarge the scope of investment activity. From an Indian fund formation perspective, this is evidenced from the introduction of codes of conduct for various stakeholders,…
Special situations and private credit funds have been increasingly looking at the high yield Indian market. With banks facing liquidity and risk issues, alternate capital with customised solutions seem attractive. Structured commonly through collateralised redeemable bonds with pay-outs deferred until maturity, these bonds may have equity kickers built-in as well, in the form of redemption premium linked to any variable, such as underlying equity share price or cashflows. While offshore capital is interested, currency, tax withholdings, enforceability and regulatory risks dampen the return profile on a risk-adjusted dollar return basis…
Infrastructure has been the highest capital receiver in 2021, and InvITs continue to be the most favoured investment vehicle for sponsors and global investors alike. InvITs have received >USD 10 billion of investments in the last couple of years, with investments from some of the largest fund houses. The roads regulator of India (NHAI) has also launched its maiden InvIT – with an EV of >USD 1.1bn and participation from large pension funds (CPPIB and OTPP). KKR has again sponsored another InvIT in the renewables space (Virescent Infrastructure) – raising capital from a clutch of investors led by Alberta Investment Management Corporation…
The issue of director duties and attendant liabilities has been a subject of immense debate as the role of directors evolves in the Indian context. India is perhaps a decade behind the west in this evolution process, though rapidly catching up driven by increasingly proactive proxy advisory firms and institutional capital taking significant positions in Indian companies, though activist funds are still a rarity. Transcendence from ‘complying with their obligations’ to ‘performing their duties’ has probably been most transformational and manifested only in the past couple of years…
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