The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) plans to introduce Data Benchmarking Institutions (DBIs) for municipal bonds, similar to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), according to senior SEBI officials.
Financial services companies, CAMS, CareEdge, and KFintech along with the Indian REITs Association (IRA), have established three separate data benchmarking platforms to provide key information and analysis on REITs.
“By providing comprehensive and transparent insights, the platforms align perfectly with SEBI’s endeavour to enhance market transparency. We believe that such initiatives will foster greater confidence among investors and contribute to the overall growth and stability of the securities market in India,” Ashwani Bhatia, a full-time member at SEBI said at the launch on Wednesday.
These platforms address the need for standardised and comparable data for this rapidly growing space while improving transparency and ease of access to information.
“After data benchmarking institutions for REITs, one can start this for municipal bonds. They can make comparisons between different cities…It will lead to a much much healthier ecosystem,” said a senior official on the sidelines. Another SEBI official said that such a framework is already in the works, and the regulator plans to come out soon.
The official said that the biggest challenge with approvals for municipalities is accounts, which need to be fixed. “Very soon, we will be approaching the government, the 15 finance commission and others, to support municipal bonds,” the SEBI official said.
Pramod Rao, executive director at SEBI also urged these platforms to host data on Small and Medium REITs (SM REITs) as well as Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs). Currently, there are four publicly listed REITs, which have all been included on the portals: Brookfield India Real Estate Trust, Embassy Office Parks REIT, Mindspace Business Parks REIT, and Nexus Select Trust.
The Indian REIT market now oversees gross Assets Under Management (AUM) of over 1.4 trillion. The portfolio managed by these REITs spans approximately 125 million sq ft of Grade A office and retail space across the country.