SEBI plans oversight of family offices, seeks disclosures and IPO access: Report
Mumbai: India’s market regulator is exploring ways to bring family offices under its regulatory ambit, as billionaire-led investment vehicles gain increasing influence in the country’s capital markets, according to people familiar with the talks, according to a Bloomberg report.
The proposals under discussion include requiring family offices to disclose details of their entities, assets, and investment returns for the first time, as well as creating a dedicated regulatory category for them, the people said, requesting anonymity.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is seeking greater transparency into how large family-run groups invest in listed securities and the risks these activities might pose.
Earlier this year, SEBI met some of the country’s biggest family offices and has since asked others for written feedback, the people added.
While the regulator has yet to finalise the framework or timeline, India currently has no specific regulation governing family offices.
Many such investment firms already act as anchor investors in public offerings, including Azim Premji’s Premji Invest, Bajaj Holdings and Investment Ltd., and private funds linked to technology billionaires Shiv Nadar and Narayana Murthy, according to data from Prime Database.
Single family offices typically manage the wealth of a single clan.
Globally, rules vary—Singapore requires minimum assets under management to qualify for tax benefits, while in Hong Kong, single family offices don’t need licenses, though multi-family offices often do.
In India, multiple family members, entities, and businesses may contribute to a family office’s capital, complicating oversight.
SEBI’s aim, according to one person familiar with the matter, is to gain better clarity on such investments to reduce risks of conflicts of interest, insider trading, and governance lapses.
“Almost every founder of a listed company in the Nifty 1000 maintains at least one” investment entity in India or abroad and often several more, depending on family branches, noted Srinath Sridharan, a corporate advisor and author on succession planning.
“That means we’re looking at upwards of 3,000 entities, including real estate holding firms, that are separate from the operating businesses. Yet only a handful are professionally managed with formal governance and risk frameworks,” he added.
According to Sridharan, how SEBI chooses to define family offices—whether narrowly targeting the largest or adopting a broader sweep—will be crucial.
As part of its consultations, SEBI has also asked some of the country’s largest family offices for feedback on whether they should be allowed to qualify as institutional investors.
Such a change would give them preferential allocations in IPOs and align them with other major players such as mutual funds, insurers, and foreign funds.
Previously, SEBI had sought to limit unregulated family investors from accessing these privileges.
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