Sanlam, South Africa’s second biggest insurer, has invested $111 million in India through Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI) scheme, Citi India announced on Monday.

This transaction also reinforces the efforts of the Indian Government to allow QFIs to directly invest in the Indian equity market.

This investment has been described as the largest investment made through a QFI in India since the easing of QFI regulations for investing in Indian equities last year.

On January 2012, in an attempt to increase foreign investments into India, the Indian government allowed foreign nationals who qualified as QFIs to invest directly into the Indian equity markets.

To qualify as a QFI, the investor should be an individual, a group or association that is a resident of a foreign country compliant with the Financial Action Task Force, which is a global body to boost national and international policies to counter terror funding and money laundering.

It is understood that the Sanlam transaction is the first of its kind supported by a foreign bank custodian in India. The bank custodian is Citi India.

Debopama Sen, Country Head of Securities and Fund Services at Citi India, said Citi continued to actively engage in discussions with regulators and investors across diverse forums.

In these discussions, Citi is highlighting the multiple benefits of a simplified QFI framework as one of the preferred investment routes into the Indian markets.

“Sanlam’s investment through this route is extremely encouraging and we look forward to further investments from other leading investors in our portfolio using the simplified QFI route,” Sen said.

Gagan Rai, the CEO of National Securities Depositary Limited, said Citi was among the first custodian partners who have been at the forefront of educating investors on newer formats of investment like the recently simplified QFI scheme.

“As the Central Depository, we understand Sanlam’s recent investment of around $111 million is the single largest QFI investment in direct equity in India post the several amendments made to the QFI regulations over the last few quarters,” Rai said.

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