FII investments in Debt Securities

General Manager

Division of Foreign Institutional Investors & Custodians

Investment Management Department

 Circular No. IMD/FII & C/38/2009

March 13, 2009

To

All Foreign Institutional Investors

through their designated Custodians of Securities

Sub: FII investments in Debt Securities

1. The Government of India reviewed the External Commercial Borrowing policy and increased the cumulative debt investment limit by USD 9 billion (from USD 6 billion to USD 15 billion) for FII investments in Corporate Debt.
   
   
2. As per SEBI circular No. IMD/FII & C/37/2009 dated February 06, 2009 USD 8 billion shall be allocated to the FIIs/ sub-accounts in an open bidding platform.
   
   
   
3. The remaining limit for investment in corporate debt shall be allocated among the FIIs/sub-accounts on a ‘first come first served’ basis in terms of SEBI circular dated January 31, 2008, subject to a ceiling of Rs.249 cr. per registered entity.
   
   
4. The debt requests in this regard shall be forwarded to the dedicated email id fii_debtrequests@sebi.gov.in . The window for first come first served process shall open at 23:59 PM IST, March 17, 2009. Time period for utilization of the allocated debt limit through first come first served shall be 11 working days from the date of the allocation.
   
   
5. A copy of this circular is available at the web page “F.I.I.” on our website www.sebi.gov.in. The custodians are requested to bring the contents of this circular to the notice of their FII clients.

Yours faithfully,

 Jeevan Sonparote