KOLKATA: A CLUTCH of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) including Emerging Market Growth Fund Inc, Macquarie Bank, Barclays Capital Mauritius, Capital International Emerging Markets Fund & Third Avenue Global Value (Master) Fund LLP have evinced an interest to shore up their exposure in McLeod Russel India Ltd (MRIL) — the world’s largest integrated tea company. Between them, these FIIs now hold 15.07% in MRIL. The total FII holding is pegged at 21.55% of MRIL’s paid-up capital of Rs 54.16 crore.
“Since our existing FII stakeholders and other FIIs too have shown interest, we have sought FIPB approval for increasing the FII exposure in MRIL to 40%. According to existing RBI guidelines, the ceiling for overall investment for FIIs is 24% of the paidup capital of a company under the portfolio investment scheme (PIS). If the FII limit crosses 24%, the concerned company needs to seek shareholders approval. In addition, being a tea company we have to seek FIPB approval. The shareholders have already given the go-ahead. We are hopeful of getting approval by the third week of August,” said MRIL MD Aditya Khaitan on the sidelines of the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.
FIIs plan to increase their holdings in MRIL through the market route. “We have no plans to increase our paid-up capital and issue shares to the FIIs. They will have to buy the shares from the market,” explained director K K Baheti.
