India Inc's foreign borrowings down 5.8% to $2.46 billion

Indian companies' foreign borrowings were at USD 2.46 billion in September, down 5.8 percent from a year ago.

This year's September data also included borrowings through rupee-denominated bonds (RBD) by Indian companies for the first time after the Reserve Bank allowed them to raise money from such sources.

In September 2015, India Inc's borrowings from overseas market (not including RBD) stood at USD 2.61 billion.

The money by the Indian companies was raised through external commercial borrowings (ECBs) and RBDs route, data from RBI showed.

Seven companies raised a total of USD 889.09 million (Rs 5,933.6 crore) through rupee denominated bonds during the month.

Those taking RBD route included HDFC Ltd USD 224.76 million (Rs 1,500 crore), Shriram Transport Finance Co USD 449.52 million (Rs 3,000 crore) and Indiabulls Housing Finance USD 199.29 million (Rs 1,330 crore), each for the purpose of sub lending.

In the ECB category, the companies raised USD 1.19 billion from automatic route and USD 387.07 million from approval route.

In approval route, Indiabulls Housing Finance raised USD 200 million for on-lending, Rural Electrification Corporation USD 100 million for on-lending and Indian Synthetic Rubber Pvt Ltd USD 66.60 million for refinancing of earlier ECB.

Those raising capital in an automatic route included Reliance Sibur Elastomers USD 330 million for rupee expenditure and Wipro USD 150 million for refinancing of earlier ECB.