India Inc's overseas borrowings dip 66% to $1.41 bn in Oct 2018: RBI

India Inc's foreign borrowings dipped nearly 66 per cent to $ 1.41 billion in October this year, Reserve Bank data showed Wednesday.

The domestic firms had borrowed $ 4.09 billion from overseas markets through external commercial borrowings (ECBs) as well as Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) in October 2017.

Besides, there was additional borrowings of $ 314.99 million through rupee-denominated bonds (RDBs) in the year-ago month.

However, the borrowings through RDBs remained unchanged in October this year.

Of the total borrowing amount in October, the Indian companies brought in $ 1.40 billion through automatic route and the rest of $ 8.54 million was by way of approval route.

Among the major borrowers, HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd raised $ 350 million for rupee expenditure; Oppo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd $ 250 million for import of capital goods; Ostro Kutch Wind $ 88.27 million for a new project; ICICI Home Finance Company $ 75 million for on-lending.

Bharti Airtel raised $ 100 million each for tenors of 5 years and 6 years for refinancing of earlier ECB and rupee expenditure respectively.

Taiyo Nippon Sanso India Pvt Ltd ($ 8.54 million) was the only company to have raised money from approval route.