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India Inc.’s Foreign Borrowings More Than Doubled In October

Bulk of the credit was through the automatic route of external commercial borrowings.

Stacks coins (Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg)  
Stacks coins (Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg)  

India Inc.’s foreign borrowings grew over twofold to $3.41 billion in October over the corresponding month a year ago, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India.

Indian companies had raised $1.41 billion in borrowings from overseas markets in October 2018.

Of the total money borrowed by the domestic companies, $2.87 billion was through the automatic route of external commercial borrowing, $538 million came in through the approval route of ECB, showed the data.

In the ECB category, the major borrowers tapping the automatic route included Muthoot Finance ($400 million), HPCL-Mittal Energy ($300 million), Wardha Solar (Maharashtra) ($251 million), Larsen & Toubro ($200 million), Deccan Fine Chemicals ($140 million) and Aditya Birla Finance ($75 million).

Two companies tapped the approval route with JSW Steel raising $400 million, while Shriram Transport Finance borrowed $138 million in October this year.

No money was raised through the rupee-denominated bonds or the masala bonds during the month, nor in the year-ago period.