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Ambarish Mukherjee

NEW DELHI, March 17

INDIAN companies are emerging as big investors abroad. It is no more a case of a couple of IT companies making great strides in the US or a steel maker hitting the headlines by acquiring sick steel plants abroad or that of a liquor major buying out some current affairs publications in the US.

Indian companies today are among the front runners in their chosen fields with investments in countries as far away as Australia, Germany, Japan, Spain, Egypt, Morocco, to name a few.

And the sectors they are investing in too are diversified.

A cursory glance at the Indian companies that have announced their foreign investment plans between December 2002 and February 2003 reveal that around 10 companies have lined up a combined investment of around $2,500 million (approximately Rs 12,000 crore) to be made in their foreign operations.

This amount accounts for roughly two-third of the actual foreign investment inflow of Rs 18,284 crore recorded by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during January-November 2002.

Though ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) leads the pack with its ambitious expansion plans in oil and gas fields across the globe and announced investment plans of more than Rs 1,700 crore, the private sector too is not lagging behind.

Oswal Projects has come up with plans to set up an ammonia project in Australia with an investment of $630 million at Burup Peninsula near Karratha in Western Australia. According to the company's plans, a special purpose vehicle - Burup Fertilisers - floated by Oswal Projects would implement the project.

One of the new age companies Moser-Baer India Ltd has plans to set up a German subsidiary with an investment of up to $100 million for manufacturing optical media products like recordable compact discs and digital versatile disk recorder.

Also there is Hindustan Seals, manufacturer of roll on pilfer proof closures and crown closures, which is planning to set up manufacturing facilities in Sri Lanka, Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania and Russia.

While their investment in Sri Lanka is expected to be $10-12 million, the detailed plan for investment in Russia and Africa is still being worked out.

Then comes Electrosteel Castings. The company is planning to set up a finishing facility for ductile iron pipes in Spain with a capacity of 1,75,000 tonnes per annum. Currently the feasibility study is on though the quantum of investment has not yet been disclosed by the company. The move follows the company being shortlisted for supplying ductile iron pipes and fittings for projects of Yorkshire Water Services.

Electronics major Videocon too has plans to set up R&D centres in China and Japan with an investment of Rs 50 crore. The company, engaged in manufacture of consumer durables, plans to develop new cost effective technologies in these centres abroad and incorporate the same into products manufactured in India.

But then again, the outside world is not as glossy as it seems from India and every industry has its own cycles. Premier Explosives have shelved their investment plans for Uzbekistan. The company has shelved its plans to set up industrial explosive unit due to non-availability of funds and non-convertibility of the Uzbek currency just as we see quite a substantial number of foreign companies shelving their Indian investment plans for various reasons.

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