Indian Companies’ Foreign Borrowings Down 45% To $2 Billion In December 2019
The remaining $55.98 million was raised through the rupee-denominated bonds or popularly known as masala bonds.
Foreign borrowings of Indian companies fell over 45 percent to $2.09 billion in December 2019 as compared to the year-ago period, according to the Reserve Bank data.
Indian firms had raised $3.81 billion in December 2018, which included $37 million through the issuance of masala bonds. Of the total money borrowed by domestic companies during December 2019, $1.2 billion was through the automatic route of external commercial borrowing and $840 million via the approval route of European Commercial Bank.
The remaining $55.98 million was raised through the rupee-denominated bonds or popularly known as masala bonds.
The borrowers taking the automatic route of ECB included HPCL-Mittal Pipelines ($262.5 million), HDFC Credila Financial Services ($100 million), LIC Housing Finance ($200 million) and Toyota Financial Services India ($100 million), among others. Those who borrowed through the approval route were REC Ltd. ($ 500 million) and Power Finance Corporation ($ 250 million), besides others. Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company was the only company to have floated masala bonds overseas to raise up to $ 55.98 million for on-lending, as per RBI data.