Mauritius is seeking interest from Indian investors for its new financial products, such as the Variable Capital Companies (VCC) Plus and family office. The country wants to garner increased investments after exiting the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), said Mahen Kumar Seeruttun, Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Mauritius.
Seeruttun told businessline, “We are looking at how best we can make VCC more attractive to investors. We wanted to share the proposition with the investors in India to see how they can consider and when thinking of setting up a fund how much this could be the best choice.”
Singapore surpassed Mauritius to become the second-largest source of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) inflows in India, last year, according to reports. This was said to be accelerated after Singapore’s proposal of the variable capital company (VCC) scheme for the fund management industry.
Mauritius too is underscoring its VCC proposition. The government said its VCC proposition is more cost-efficient than that of Singapore as its licensing cost is lower than that of Singapore inclusive of its rebates.
Garnering interest
Seeruttun further said that the country has also introduced a single-family office and multiple-family office with various features. It is gauging investor interest to check if they can consider Mauritius as a potential jurisdiction when their customers are wanting to set up a family office.
The island nation also wants to underscore its other financial products such as Shared Services, Global Headquartering, and Treasury Management, in order to garner investment interest from India, according to Seeruttan. He also said the country’s financial services sector is going through a digital revolution and is doubling down on developments in the fintech sector, which could make Mauritius attractive for investors.
Mauritius’ inclusion on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list in 2020, is said to have served as a cautionary tale for foreign companies, resulting in the country losing its appeal as an investment destination. Commenting on the same, Seeruttan said, “While the perception still exists that we are the grey list, we want to underscore the fact that we have managed to exit the list and the country is compliant with all the 40 FATF recommendations.”