Speaking to The Financial Express, UTI executive director SK Basu said: "An application for an FII status has been sent to Sebi. We expect to get an FII status in due course of time."

Senior Sebi officials confirmed that about half-a-dozen domestic companies have now petitioned the regulator for getting themselves registered as FIIs.

UTI-IAS manages the India Growth Fund Inc, an offshore fund of UTI. It also renders fund accounting and compliance services to UTI offshore funds - namely India Fund, India Access Fund, India Information Technology Fund and India Public Sector Fund.

UTI-IAS (Mauritius) Ltd, a UTI-IAS subsidiary set up primarily to develop business in the area of asset management and advising the national pension fund and other pension funds in Mauritius, plans to invest and raise money from the African region, India and other countries for which it might enter into a tie-up with some fund managers abroad. The FII status would enable UTI-IAS to manage foreign investment in the Indian capital market through portfolio investment route. According to the Sebi regulations, asset management companies and portfolio managers registered with Sebi can register themselves as FII to manage foreign investments in the Indian capital market through the portfolio investment route. The domestic approved asset management companies would be required to first seek registration as portfolio managers.

As per the Sebi regulations, the domestic entities registered as FIIs under the Regulation would be permitted to raise funds abroad only if they are also registered with the appropriate foreign regulatory authority. In other cases, they would only be permitted to manage funds raised by an FII incorporated abroad as its agents.

UTI-IAS has been registered with SEC of the US. The net profit after tax of the company for the year ended March 2000 had increased to Rs 4.13 crore from Rs 2.21 crore.

Anand Rathi gets FII status
Anand Rathi Securities of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) president Anand Rathi has secured FII status.

Speaking to The Financial Express, Mr Rathi confirmed that the securities firm had received an approval from Sebi in October.

First Global had also secured approval from Sebi as an FII recently and announced it some time ago. Anand Rathi Securities is in talks with a number of investors abroad for getting registered as a sub-account with Sebi. Says Mr Rathi: "We are looking at South East Asia, Middle-East, the UK and the US for tapping funds."

According to Anand Rathi Securities director-PMS Nischal Maheshwari: "There are number of investors interested in the Indian markets. However, with the market being volatile they are taking time to respond."