life in financial markets: mauritius-based investors in listed indian stocks

A few days back I wrote an analytical story on large equity stakeholdings by Mauritius-based investors in listed Indian companies on the National Stock Exchange of India. 


Here is what I wrote:

Mauritian investors' influence goes up a tad

Public shareholders with a Mauritius tag in their names held Rs 70,000 crore worth of large stakes in listed companies

The Mauritian influence in the listed Indian equity market improved marginally in the December 2011 quarter as compared with the previous quarter. This was bought out in a FC Research Bureau analysis of shareholding of more than one per cent in listed companies by public shareholders which had the word 'Mauritius' in their names. These shareholders included foreign institutional investors (FIIs) (including FII sub-accounts), foreign venture capital investors and foreign investors investing through the foreign direct investment (FDI) route.

The collective holdings at the end of December 2011 of 86 such public shareholders in 255 companies was, at January 25 prices, worth Rs 70,114 crore, which was four per cent more than 67,542 crore worth of September 2011-end holdings of 83 similar Mauritius-based public shareholders valued at January 25 prices.

The largest Mauritian investor in Indian equities at December 2011-end holdings was Citigroup's two investment subsidiaries' collective holding in just one company, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC). Citigroup Strategic Holdings Mauritius, with a 8.78 per cent stake, and Citigroup Holding Mauritius, with a 1.07 per cent stake, together held 9.85 per cent stake in HDFC which, at its January 25 closing price, was worth 10,302 crore. This duo was also the largest Mauritian-based investor based on their September 2011-end holding which was the same, at 9.85 per cent stake.

The second-largest Mauritian investor was Aberdeen Asset Managers whose two FII sub-accounts, Aberdeen Global Indian Equity Fund Mauritius and Aberdeen International India Opportunities Fund (Mauritius) collectively, increased their investment exposure to Rs 9,257 crore based on December-end holdings across 14 companies from Rs 8,069 crore based on September-end holdings across 12 companies mainly due to new greater-than-one-per-cent holdings in Mphasis and Pirmal Healthcare. Valiant Mauritius Partners, another Mauritian investor, increased its holdings to 14 companies valuing Rs 1,146 crore from holdings in 11 companies valuing Rs 819 crore.

The ones who reduced their exposure included Morgan Stanley Mauritius Company whose greater-than-one-per-cent holdings fell to Rs 1,275 crore across 28 companies. Deutsche Securities Mauritius' large holdings also fell to Rs 1,333 crore across 23 companies from Rs 1,797 crore across 25 companies.

The Mauritian investors which had diversified holdings in 10 or more stocks as of the end of December included Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius (10th largest Mauritian investor in terms of holding value) with large stakes in 41 listed companies, Copthall Mauritius Investment (6th largest) with 28 companies' stakes, FID Funds (Mauritius) (8th largest) with 26 companies' stakes and HSBC Global Investment Funds Mauritius (3rd largest) with 23 companies' stakes.

TMI Mauritius and P5 Asia Investments Mauritius were the 5th, and 7th, largest Mauritian-investors respectively but both of them had a large stake in only company, Idea Cellular.

The value of the large holdings by 10 largest Mauritian investors accounted for 73 per cent of that of by all Mauritian investors. Immediately following the top 10 Mauritian investors were Deutsche Securities Mauritius, Morgan Stanley Mauritius and Valiant Mauritius Partners.

Large stakeholdings by Mauritian investors
These 10 investors made up for 74 per cent of all Mauritian investors
	Value of holdings (Rs cr)		No. of cos. invested in
Citigroup Holding Mauritius *	10302		1
Aberdeen Asset Managers**	9257		14
HSBC Global Investment Funds Mauritius ***	8049		23
HSBC Bank Mauritius****	6334		18
TMI Mauritius	4371		1
Copthall Mauritius Investment	3684		28
P5 Asia Investments Mauritius	3104		1
FID Funds (Mauritius)*****	2242		26
CLSA (Mauritius)	2112		22
Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius	1949		41
Holdings are as of 31 Dec 2011 but valued at Jan 25 prices
* Citigroup Strategic Holdings Mauritius & Citigroup Holding Mauritius
** through FII sub-accounts Aberdeen Global Indian Equity Fund Mauritius & Aberdeen International India Opportunities Fund (Mauritius) for which it is main FII
*** FII sub-account to main FII HSBC Global Investment Funds
**** through various FII sub-accounts for which it acts as main FII
***** FII sub-account to main FII FIL Investment Management (Hong Kong) of the Fidelity Group
Source: Capitaline Neo. Analysed by FC Research Bureau