Mumbai: External commercial borrowings by Indian companies in April more than trebled to $1.30 billion, a sizable portion of which was taken to start new projects. The ECBs were at $304.57 million in April last year. The borrowings in April this year included $1.27 billion through the automatic route and $39.26 million from approval route, showed data from Reserve Bank.
Besides, there was additional borrowing of $394.53 million (Rs2,545 crore) by India Inc through rupee denominated bonds (RDBs) in April 2017. There was no RDB provision vis-a-vis a year ago, it as permitted from September 2016.
In the automatic route category, JSW Steel took loan of $500 million for overseas acquisition and refinancing of earlier ECB; HPCL-Mittal Energy raised $372 million to pay-off earlier ECB and Adani International Container Terminal Pvt Ltd $60 million for port related expenses. Essar Shipping was the only company under approval route raising $39.26 million for import of capital goods.
Those who floated rupee denominated bonds overseas were NTPC Ltd $310 million (Rs2,000 crore) for power; Nissan Renault Financial Services $62 million (Rs400 crore) for on-lending and UCWeb Mobile $22.48 million (Rs145 crore) for general corporate purpose.