India Inc Raised $3.55 Billion From Overseas Market in March

Domestic companies including Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Air India Ltd and IDFC raised a total of $3.55 billion in March from overseas markets, data from the Reserve Bank (RBI) showed on Thursday.

Indian firms had raised a higher $4.3 billion through external commercial borrowings (ECBs) and foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) in the previous month.

As per the RBI data, borrowings by domestic companies through ECB and FCCBs were via a combination of automatic and approval routes.

The companies raised as much as $1.36 billion through the approval route during the month, while $2.17 billion were raised via the automatic route.

Through the approval route, IOC raised $810 million for overseas acquisition and Intel Technology India raised $150 million for import of capital goods.

Public carrier, Air India raised $99 million each in two separate tranches for import of capital goods through the approval route, while Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd raised $70 million for on-lending/sub-lending.

In the automatic route category, Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation raised $500 million each for sub-lending and working capital purpose respectively. IDFC Ltd raised $300 million for sub-lending.

Among others raising money through automatic route, Sterling Biotech raised $206.46 million for refinancing of earlier ECB and Bharat Petroleum Corp raised $198.58 million for working capital needs.

India's ECB in the entire fiscal year 2013-14 stood at $33.25 billion.