India Inc's Dec foreign borrowing jumps over 4-fold at $3.03 bn

India Inc raised over USD 3.03 billion from overseas markets in December 2015, a jump of more than 4-times from a year ago, RBI data showed on Wednesday. The domestic firms had raised USD 637.29 million from overseas markets during the same month in 2014. Of the total borrowings during the month, USD 1.13 billion was raised through approval route, while USD 1.90 billion came through automatic route.

The Indian firms raised the capital both via external commercial borrowings (ECBs) and foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) routes. In the approval route category, the major borrowers include Reliance Industries which raised USD 975.87 million for refinancing of earlier ECB and Videocon Industries borrowed USD 97.2 million for redemption of FCCBs. Air India borrowed USD 32.91 million for import of capital goods and Reliance Transport and Travels Private Ltd raised USD 16.59 million for import of capital goods.

In the automatic route, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation raised USD 465 million for refinancing of earlier ECB; GMR Infrastructure and Mylan Laboratories raised USD 300 million each for other and general corporate purpose respectively. Among others in the automatic category, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Oman Refineries and Balkrishna Industries raised USD 250 million, USD 125 million and USD 116.67 million respectively for refinancing of earlier ECBs. Also, Essar Oil Limited raised USD 72 million for modernisation project.