Foreign stakes in insurers’ parent not to count for FDI

The finance ministry clarified the doubts on the fact that the foreign shareholding in parent companies of insurance ventures would not be counted as overseas ownership for computation of foreign direct investment in the insurance ventures.

As against earlier, foreign ownership in a firm was calculated by taking into account the proportion of overseas holdings in the parent firm. If foreigners owned half of the parent company and 50 per cent in the subsidiary, then foreign holdings in the subsidiary would be computed as 75 per cent. But not so anymore, at least when it comes to insurance firms founded by banks.