Photo of Sonakshi Arora

Partner in the General Corporate Practice at the Mumbai office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Sonakshi advises on areas such as mergers & acquisitions, including court-based mergers, business/ asset transfers and share acquisitions. She can be reached at sonakshi.arora@cyrilshroff.com

Role of IFSC in the Indian SPAC Dream

In part 2 of this series of blogs (Key Features IFSC Lisiting Regulations in Relation to Listing of SPACs), we touched upon the newly-introduced framework for the issuance and listing of special purpose acquisition companies (“SPACs”) at the International Financial Services Centres (“IFSC”) under the International Financial Services Centres Authority (Issuance and Listing of Securities) Regulations, 2021 (“IFSC Listing Regulations”). In this part of the blog we are going to look at the IFSC Listing Regulations with a critical eye to detect the gaps that continue to exist despite the framework being put in place and identify areas that can be improved upon to leverage the unique status of entities in IFSC.Continue Reading Role of IFSC in the Indian SPAC Dream: An Overview – Part 3

Role of IFSC in the Indian SPAC Dream: An Overview – Part 2

In part 1 of this series of blogs (Role of IFSC in Indian SPAC Dream- An Overview), we succinctly summarised the various dimensions of IFSCs, viz. their ‘foreign territory’ status in India, applicable laws and regulation and the development of regulatory regime for special purpose acquisition companies (“SPACs”) listings therein.Continue Reading Role of IFSC in the Indian SPAC Dream: An Overview – Part 2

Role of IFSC in the Indian SPAC Dream

India, being one of the major consumers of international financial services, has been pushing the envelope on making itself the hub for such services. With this objective, the Government of India had operationalised India’s first (and currently the only) International Financial Services Centre (“IFSC”) at GIFT Multi Services Special Economic Zone (“SEZ”) in Gujarat in April 2015. In this regard and to further this objective, the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act was enacted in December 2019 to set up a unified regulator, viz the International Financial Services Centres Authority (“IFSCA”), which commenced operation in October 2020. The IFSCA has been vested with the roles and powers of four domestic regulators, namely the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”), the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (“IRDAI”), and the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority. IFSCA has been set up to develop and regulate financial institutions, financial services, and financial products within the IFSCs in India.Continue Reading Role of IFSC in the Indian SPAC Dream: An Overview – Part 1

Lessons from ReNew Power overseas listing through SPAC

The frenzy of Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPACs), which became the buzzword in 2020, has continued into 2021 with around 711 SPACs currently present in the US market seeking a target. SPACs are blank check shell companies listed on a stock exchange (such as NASDAQ), which are set up by investment funds/ sponsors exclusively for the purpose of acquiring operating companies within a prescribed time period, with the acquisition resulting in listing of such operating companies. This route of listing is relatively less time consuming and less cumbersome as compared to the traditional IPOs. Investors invest in SPACs based on the investment philosophy, the sector and geography which the SPAC indicates in its listing documents.Continue Reading Lessons from ReNew Power overseas listing through SPAC