The Hindu Business Line : FIIs' registrations continue to rise

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Kolkata Jan. 24 FII registrations continue unabated, the last three months throwing up a number of names, many of which have their origins in Europe and America. Close to a dozen were registered in the first three weeks of January.

A discernible number of those registered - the total number of registered FIIs stood at 1,059 on January 24 - can be traced to emerging market funds, pension funds and the like. A section of these are part of operations run by international investment groups.

A few registrations have been secured by institutions in diverse locations including Cyprus, Ireland, Italy and Hawaii. A handful of them are from Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan as well.

Among the names listed by SEBI are FIIs close to institutions such as Boy Scouts of America, George Kaiser Family Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The J. Paul Getty Trust and University of Wisconsin Foundation.

In the first three weeks of the current month, registrations were granted to a clutch of funds. These include Emirates Bank International PJSC (Dubai), Fimat International Banque SA (UK), Morley Pooled Pensions (UK), Gard Contractual Fund (Ireland), HLG Asia-Pacific Dividend Fund (Malaysia), John Hancock Science & Technology Trust (USA), National Railroad Retirement (USA) and Lazard Freres Gestion SAS (France).

The number of FIIs registered with SEBI was increasing every year, figures released earlier by the regulatory body suggest. There were 882 FIIs registered on March 31, 2006, compared with 685 a year ago, an increase of nearly 200 over the 12-month period.

"A distinctive feature of the profile of the newly registered FIIs relates to increase in registration from unconventional countries," SEBI had mentioned in its 2005-06 annual report. These countries include Australia, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Sweden. Incidentally, the net FII investment in equity during 2005-06 was roughly Rs 48,800 crore, the highest ever in a single year, the regulator added.

Players who registered in the past one year included names such as California State Teachers' Retirement System, Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago and Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado.

Besides, there were the likes of Pilkington Brothers Superannuation Trustee and Kraft Foods Master Retirement Trust 2. These were registered between April and October last year.

Asians troop in

FIIs are coming in from all over, and those in the Far East are not staying away either.

Institutions, with addresses in Tokyo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Taiwan, have taken registrations in recent months. These include Khazanah Nasional Berhad of Malaysia (Month of registration: December 2006), Nikkociti Trust & Banking Corporation of Japan (August), Nomura International (Hong Kong) Ltd (August), The Mutual Fund Management Co of The Philippines Inc, Shinsei Bank of Japan (July) and Mirae Asset of Korea (March).

In addition, entities such as Shuaa Capital PSC of Dubai and United Securities LLC of Oman have also joined the Asian list in November 2006 and January this year respectively.

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