New Delhi: The government has given nod to the Oman Investment Fund (OIF), the Sultanate of Oman's sovereign wealth fund, to buy five per cent stake in the UCX, a national level commodity exchange in the country.
"A week back, we received the Foreign Investment Promotion Board's (FIPB) approval to induct QIF's arm, Funderburk 2 Mauritius as a foreign investor in the UCX,"the exchange's promoter Ketan Sheth told PTI. Funderburk 2 Mauritius has bought five per cent stake in the exchange for Rs 13.75 crore, he said.
The government norms allow up to 49 per cent foreign investment - 26 per cent FDI and 23 per cent FII - in commexes subject to a 5 per cent cap per investor. Currently, there are five national and 18 regional commodity exchanges in the country. UCX is the sixth at the national level.
Sheth, who is an IT entrepreneur, said the exchange has met all requirements on technology as well as equity fronts and will soon apply with commodity markets regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) for final approval.
UCX promoters had an August 2011 deadline to shore up Rs 100-crore equity capital, a year after receiving the government's in-principle approval to start operations. They sought an extension to comply with the norm till mid-March 2012.
Shareholders include 'IT People' (40 per cent), Rural Electrification Corporation (16 per cent), Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (15 per cent) and IDBI Bank (10 per cent).
As per the 2010 guidelines issued by the regulator FMC, the new national commodity exchange should have a demutualised structure with minimum authorised capital of Rs 100 crore. A promoter can't hold more than 26 per cent paid up capital of the proposed exchange and institutional investors not less than 20 per cent.
The total turnover of the commodity futures market rose by 66 per cent to Rs 137.22 lakh crore till December, in the current fiscal.
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