Govt approves 16 FDI proposals worth Rs 924 cr

The government today said it has cleared 16 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals amounting to Rs 923.55 crore, including those of Star News Broadcasting Ltd and L&T Finance Holdings.

A total of 38 FDI proposals were taken up by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), but the board deferred a decision on 14 applications, rejected seven and recommended one for the CCEA, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The board gave its approval to Soma Tollways (Andhra Pradesh) for induction of foreign equity in an investing company. The proposal is likely to bring in FDI worth Rs 500 crore.

L&T Finance Holdings's application for permission for pre-IPO placement of equity shares with eligible non-resident investors was also approved by the FIPB. The firm aims at FDI worth Rs 400 crore.

The board also approved the Star News Broadcasting's (Touch Tele Content India) proposal for induction of foreign capital. It would, however, not include any fresh inflow of funds.

The other major proposals that were cleared by the FIPB include those of Global Gourmet (Gujarat), Park Controls & Communications Ltd (Bangalore) and Centum Electronics Ltd (Bangalore).

The ministry further said the board deferred a decision on applications by Indian Rotorcraft (Mumbai) for induction of foreign equity and Precision Electronics to undertake the additional activity in the defence sector.

Decisions on the proposals of BNP Paribas SA (Paris), Sightlife USA, Southern CNG Automobiles and Natixis Global Asset Management (France), among others, were also deferred.

The proposals which were rejected include those of Reynders Label Printing India (Delhi and Haryana), Anuradha Holdings (Bangalore) and AOS Holding India SAS (France).

The official statement said that two proposals -- PTC India Financial Services (Delhi, Haryana) and Tata Steel Ltd -- were withdrawn from the FIPB Agenda on the request of the applicants.

The proposal, which was recommended to the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affair (CCEA) was of Cals Refineries Ltd (Delhi and Haryana) to issue equity shares in the form of GDRs against supply of refinery equipments. The proposal is likely to bring in FDI worth Rs 1,425 crore.

Foreign Direct Investments into the country had fallen to $19.43 billion (Rs 88,520 crore) in 2010-11 as against $25.83 billion (Rs 12.31 lakh crore) in the previous fiscal, a decline of 25%.