International buyers, Indian startups press Modi for abroad listings

NEW DELHI, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Leading investors such as Tiger Global, Sequoia Money and Lightspeed have named on India’s Key Minister Narendra Modi to spur procedures to permit corporations to listing overseas for far better entry to money, in accordance to a letter found by Reuters.

India in September permitted organizations to record specifically on overseas exchanges like the New York Stock Trade or Nasdaq (NDAQ.O), but the governing administration has but to announce principles necessary to govern these kinds of listings.

Calling it an “unfinished reform agenda”, some 22 buyers and top rated Indian startups this kind of as food-delivery app Swiggy and on line tutoring agency Byju’s wrote to Modi urging him to expedite the plan.

“The present-day inability of unlisted organizations to tap worldwide marketplaces for increasing money is … an impediment to the growth ambitions of Indian startups,” they reported in the July 29 letter.

Swiggy and Sequoia declined to remark. Other entities, as effectively as Modi’s business, did not quickly respond to requests for comment.

The new coverage is viewed as a shot in the arm for Indian unicorn commence-ups valued at extra than $1 billion and the digital unit of conglomerate Reliance, which is eyeing a U.S. listing immediately after raising more than $20 billion from buyers last year.

But the letter will come when quite a few are choosing to checklist in India.

China’s Ant Group-backed Indian foods supply agency Zomato experienced a stellar debut on Indian bourses just lately, valuing the company at $13 billion, even though some others which includes SoftBank-backed journey-hailing agency Ola are also eyeing regional listings.

“Even as some organizations are gearing up to checklist in India, many others are keen to examine the choice of an global listing,” the letter said, highlighting how corporations in other marketplaces like the United States have a substantially more substantial marketplace capitalization than in India.

The London Stock Exchange, which is monitoring India’s coverage alter intently, explained to Reuters very last year it experienced been in talks with several Indian tech corporations on abroad listings. This kind of listings will existing an prospect for some of the world’s major exchanges to vie for India’s speedily escalating startup corporations.

The Indian governing administration having said that experienced been concerned that overseas listing could imply that corporations hunting for better valuations by access to a broader team of investors would pick to only list overseas, hurting prospective buyers of Indian markets.

The team of investors and startups told Modi this sort of considerations have been “unfounded” and that overseas listings will increase curiosity of foreign traders in Indian startups.

Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi and Abhirup Roy in Mumbai Enhancing by Mike Harrison

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