Indian companies can directly list in GIFT IFSC, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman 

To boost GIFT IFSC’s growing popularity, the government has now allowed Indian companies to directly list in the special zone even if they are not listed elsewhere on any of the exchanges in the country. 

On Friday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while launching the Corporate Debt Market Development Fund (CDMDF) in Mumbai, said that the government has given the final go ahead for Indian companies to directly list on exchanges in GIFT International Financial Services Centre (IFSC). 

“The government has taken a decision to enable direct listing of listed and unlisted companies on the IFSC exchanges. This is a major step forward and this would provide access to global capital and result in better valuation of the Indian companies,” said the finance minister. 

“It is worth emphasising that the government’s vision for GIFT IFSC transcends much beyond the realm of traditional finance and ventures into the realm of thought leadership,” she added. 

This assumes significance as way back in May 2020, the government had first mooted the idea of allowing Indian companies to directly list in foreign jurisdictions. India’s first IFSC is not exactly a foreign destination but is a special economic zone (SEZ) that offers many incentives and benefits akin to a foreign jurisdiction. 

Meanwhile, a senior finance ministry official present at the event said that the notification allowing Indian companies to list on GIFT IFSC bourses will be issued soon and going ahead, a few foreign jurisdictions would also be included in the permissible list.

Both the national-level stock exchanges—BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE)—have a presence in GIFT IFSC and so do most of the large Indian and foreign banking entities. The last couple of years have seen almost all of the leading players of the BFSI arena make their presence in the special zone. 

More recently, GIFT IFSC has been in the news due to the growing popularity of Gift Nifty derivatives that have been clocking record volumes. 

Gift Nifty offers access to Gift Nifty 50, Gift Nifty Bank, Gift Nifty Financial Services and Gift Nifty IT derivatives contracts. More importantly, these contracts are accessible for almost 21 hours, which overlaps Asia, Europe, and US trading hours.