FIIs' debt investment limit via open bidding: Sebi

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday said that debt investment limit would hence forth be allocated to FIIs through open bidding.

Stock exchanges would provide the bidding platform and the duration of the bidding session would be two hours, Sebi said, adding that existing trading members would have access to the platform.

In a circular issued late this evening, Sebi said FIIs and sub-accounts would mandate trading members who, in turn, would bid for these limits.

Recently, the Centre had reviewed the ECB policy and increased the cumulative debt investment limit from $6 billion to $15 billion for FII investments in corporate debt.

Sebi has already allocated $1 billion to FIIs on a first come first served basis. The remaining $8 billion will be allocated through this bidding process.

According to the Sebi circular, the minimum amount that can be bid for is Rs 250 crore and the minimum tick size is Rs 100 crore. A minimum flat fee of Rs 1,000 per successful bid will be levied for the allocated amount and no single entity will be allocated more than Rs 10,000 crore of the investment limit.

The bid price will be expressed in basis point.