India Inc’s foreign borrowings dipped nearly 66 per cent to $1.41 billion in October this year, as per the data presented by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The domestic firms had borrowed $4.09 billion from overseas markets through external commercial borrowings (ECBs) as well as Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) in October 2017.
Besides, there was additional borrowings of $314.99 million through rupee denominated bonds (RDBs) in the year-ago month.
However, the borrowings through RDBs remained unchanged in October this year.
Of the total borrowing amount in October, the Indian companies brought in $1.40 billion through automatic route and the rest of $8.54 million was by way of approval route.
Among the major borrowers, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd raised $350 million for rupee expenditure; Oppo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd $250 million for import of capital goods; Ostro Kutch Wind $88.27 million for new project; ICICI Home Finance Company $75 million for on-lending.
Bharti Airtel raised $100 million each for tenors of 5 years and 6 years for refinancing of earlier ECB and rupee expenditure respectively.
Taiyo Nippon Sanso India Pvt Ltd ($8.54 million) was the only company to have raised money from approval route.