Firms garner Rs 23,000 crore via NCDs in FY'16

This is much higher than Rs 9,713 crore garnered by firms in the entire last fiscal.

Companies raised nearly Rs 23,000 crore through retail issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs) in the ongoing financial year to meet business requirement. This is much higher than Rs 9,713 crore garnered by firms in the entire last financial year. Most of the funds have been mobilised for expansion, to support working capital requirements and other general corporate purposes. NCDs are loan-linked bonds that cannot be converted into stock and usually offer higher interest rates than convertible debentures. As per the latest data with Securities and Exchange Board of India, firms raked in a total of Rs 22,773 crore through NCDs in the current financial year as on February 10.

In terms of numbers, 16 issuances have taken the NCD route in the ongoing fiscal as compared to 25 in the entire past financial year.

Interestingly, some of the companies have taken the route twice to garner funds.

Experts said sluggish market conditions have forced many companies to opt for NCD route to garner fresh capital.

Individually, National Highways Authority of India raised Rs 10,000 crore, while Indian Railway Finance Corporation mopped up Rs 4,532 crore. These firms raised funds against the base size of Rs 1,000 crore each.

Housing and Urban Development Corporation mobilised Rs 1,711 crore against the target of Rs 500 crore and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency raked in Rs 1,716 crore against the base size of Rs 1,000 crore.

NTPC, Rural Electrification Corporation and Power Finance Corporation collected Rs 700 crore each against a target of Rs 400 crore, Rs 300 crore and Rs 100 crore, respectively.

Besides, Muthoot Finance, SREI Equipment Finance, SREI Infrastructure Finance, Muthoottu Mini Financiers, Muthoot Fincorp and Kosamattam Finance too have taken this route to garner funds.

Umesh Revankar, MD & CEO, Shriram Transport Finance Limited, said: "Infrastructure should be main focus of this year’s budget. ‘The Make In India’ campaigns success hinges totally on support system and enabling environment. India needs faster & efficient connectivity between ports, railways to the site /plants that would reduce logistics cost which is probably one of the highest in the world for movement of goods. Attracting Investment in defense and high technology is essential to bring in knowledge and encouragement for high technology to flourish in India."

George Alexander Muthoot, MD, Muthoot Finance Limited, said: "We envisage that given the significant role played by NBFCs in supplementing the banking industry, the forthcoming budget will strengthen the role of NBFCs in the economy, especially well-run NBFCs with net-worth of more than Rs 5,000 crores As financial empowerment through financial inclusion is one of the key mottos of the government, we expect that the budget will have measures directed towards reinstating gold loan under priority sector lending as we believe that gold loans can be a useful tool in achieving the objective of Pradhan Mantri’s Jan Dhan Yojana where more than 11 crore accounts have been opened."