Unlisted companies will be able to go in for direct listing of their securities at Gift City in next 3-4 months, K Rajaraman, Chairman, International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) has said.

The process of direct listing of unlisted companies out of India in the bourses in Gift City, which is country’s sole IFSC, is much simpler and would not require SEBI regulation changes.

Those (unlisted companies) would be the first set of companies that would be enabled to avail direct listing in Gift City, Rajaraman said on the sidelines of a PHDCCI event in the capital on Wednesday.

As far as listed companies are concerned, SEBI has been requested to amend some of its regulations such as Takeover Code (SAST regulations), which they are in the process of doing it. “We expect that to take few months. Listed companies will take 5-6 more months. For companies that have global ambitions and would look to raise international forex or dollar resources, Gift City would be a good market for listing,” Rajaraman said. 

He also expressed confidence that start-ups and other tech companies that may find better valuations in Gift City in an international setting would make use of this facility in sometime from now.

Rajaraman said that IFSCA will also in the coming days put in place separate guidelines on direct listing. Already the Centre has notified changes in its rules to pave the way for direct listing of securities in the bourses in Gift City.

Digital drive

On fintechs, Rajaraman said that IFSCA wants to provide fully digital experience to all the global participants especially NRIs in the Gift City market. “We are looking for products that have global capability. We believe fintechs have lot of value in taking products to the global markets especially NRIs. Five of the fintechs have already received authorisation and 45 admitted to Sandbox”, he said. 

He also highlighted that IFSCA has set up a committee to look at tokenisation of real world assets.

Asked about concerns that resident Indians would not be allowed to participate as investors in securities directly listing in Gift City, Rajaraman told businessline that they are not allowed at this point of time. “We may examine it in due course of time. We will work as per the regulations now in place”, Rajaraman added.