Mumbai: India Inc raised USD 488.49 million via External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) and Rupee Denominated Bonds (RDBs) in November 2016, as per RBI data. The Indian companies had raised USD 3.16 billion from foreign sources in the same month a year ago. However, the data is not comparable as borrowings through RDBs were included only this year. The number of companies raising money through ECB route in November 2016 fell to 34 from as high as 53 in November 2015.
The Reserve Bank has allowed Indian companies to tap foreign sources by issuing RDBs from this year and it has started publishing the data on these rupee denominated bonds from September 2016. Of the total borrowings from overseas markets during November, the companies raised USD 277.81 million via ECBs, using both the automatic and approval route. In the ECB category, Kalsubai Shipping & Offshore Pvt Ltd and John Energy Limited raised a total of USD 41 million by using the approval channel.
The major borrowers in automatic category were: Mytrah Vayu (Tungabhadra) Pvt Ltd’s USD 48.55 million for new project; Maxxis Rubber India Pvt Ltd’s USD 40 million for import of capital goods, and Bekaert Industries Pvt Ltd’s USD 21.62 million for import of capital goods. Commercial vehicle maker SML Isuzu raised USD 20.89 million for modernisation work.
The remaining USD 210.68 million were raised via RDBs by a total of eight companies. Among the prominent companies issuing RDBs were: Power Finance Corporation (USD 100 million) for sub-lending, TRL Riceland (USD 59.15 million) for other propose and Tiaa Global Business Services (USD 15.69 million) for rupee expenditure.
PTI