Sebi slashes listing timeline of private InvITs to 6 days

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Capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on June 24 slashed the listing timeline of private infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) to six days from the current 30 days.

Considering the time taken for the listing of units of privately placed InvITs in the recent past, it was decided to examine the reduction of timelines for their listing, which was also discussed with market participants, Sebi said in its circular.

"Hence, as a part of the continuing endeavour to streamline the process of allotment and listing of units, it has been decided to reduce the time taken for allotment and listing of units of privately placed Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT), after the closure of the issue to six working days as against the present requirement of thirty working days," the circular added.

In a separate circular, the capital markets regulator provided an additional payment option of UPI or unified payments interface mechanism to retail investors to apply in the public issue of REITs and InvITs for application value up to Rs 5 lakh.

The new framework, aimed at further streamlining the process, will be applicable to public issue of units of Infrastructure Investment Trust and real estate investment trust (REIT), which opens on August 1.

"After consultation with stakeholders, it has been decided to provide an additional option to individual investors to apply in public issues of units of REITs and InvITs with a facility to block funds through UPI mechanism for application value up to Rs 5 lakh," Sebi said.

The regulator has asked all the entities involved in the process to coordinate with one another to ensure completion of the listing of securities and commencement of trading by T+ 6 (trading plus six) working days.

Further, the merchant banker needs to ensure that the process of additional payment mechanism through UPI is disclosed in the offer document and all the newspapers where the issue advertisement is disclosed.

Notably, REITs and InvITs are relatively new investment instruments in the Indian context but are extremely popular in the global markets. While a REIT comprises a portfolio of commercial real assets, a major portion of which is already leased out, InvITs comprise a portfolio of infrastructure assets, such as highways and power transmission assets.

(With PTI inputs)