- Indian companies raised $1.89 billion from overseas markets last month.
- Sources of funds raised included external commercial borrowings and foreign currency convertible bonds.
- $1.24 billion was raised via the automatic route while $650 million came through the approval route.
Indian companies raised $1.89 billion from overseas markets last month, 57.5 percent more than a year ago, data from the Reserve Bank of India showed on Wednesday.
They had, in comparison, borrowed $1.20 billion from overseas markets in July last year.
The sources of funds raised in July this year included external commercial borrowings (ECBs), and foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs). There was no data on credit offtake through rupee denominated bonds (RDBs) during the month as they were banned temporarily by capital market regulator SEBI.
“As rupee-denominated bonds issued by Indian corporates overseas are covered under Combined Corporate Debt Limit (CCDL), issuance of such bonds overseas shall temporarily cease, until the limit utilisation falls back to below 92 percent,” the Securities and Exchange Board of India had said in its order last month.
The ban came less than an year after RBI started giving data on RDB borrowings from September 2016. The RBI data showed that $1.24 billion was raised via the automatic route last month, while the remaining $650 million came through the approval route.
Rural Electrification Corporation took the approval route of ECB to raise $450 million and $200 million in separate tranches of 10 years and 5 years respectively for the purpose of on-lending.
As for the automatic route, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation raised $500 million for modernisation of project, while Reliance Utilities and Power garnered $300 million for refinancing of earlier ECB.
Besides, Idea Cellular raised $155.08 million for refinancing earlier ECB, while Export-Import Bank of India borrowed $75 million for sub-lending.
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