India's outbound investment slips 11%, says RBI

Facing the pangs of slowdown, India Inc appears to have restrained from overseas mergers and acquisitions as the country’s foreign investment slipped by over 11 per cent during April-December 2008, says Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

“During the first nine months of 2008-09, 2,828 proposals amounting to $16,352 million were cleared for investments abroad in JVs (joint ventures) and WOSs (wholly owned subsidiaries), as against 1,595 proposals amounting to $18,437 million during the corresponding period of the previous year,” the central bank said in its April Bulletin.

Even though the number of proposals recorded an increase of 77.3 per cent, amount invested by India Inc on overseas ventures dipped by over 11 per cent during the period.

There were a total of 2,828 proposals during the first nine months of 2008-09 against 1,595 proposals in the corresponding period previous year.

“During the quarter, October-December 2008, proposals amounting to $7,409 million were cleared for investments abroad in JVs and WOSs, as against $7,882 million during October-December 2007, the RBI said. The October-December 2008 investment proposals pattern indicated equity share declining to 75.8 per cent of the investment against 82.1 per cent in the same period the previous year.