India Inc's external borrowing jumps 66% to $2.71 bn in Jun

India Inc raised USD 2.71 billion through external commercial borrowing (ECB) and rupee-denominated bonds (RDBs) in June 2018, up by 66.3 per cent over the same month last year, the RBI data released today showed.

Indian companies had raised USD 1.63 billion from overseas sources in June 2017.

The domestic firms raised over USD 2.66 billion by tapping external commercial borrowing (ECB), while USD 49.42 million by way of issuing rupee denominated bonds (RDBs), according to the RBI data.

As many as 77 firms went through the ECB route to raise USD 2.66 billion. The major companies included HDFC Ltd (USD 750 million) for on-lending; Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (USD 350 million) for refinancing earlier ECB; Shriram Transport Finance (USD 500 million) and Indiabulls Housing Finance (USD 240 million) for on-lending purposes.

Tata Motors raised USD 250 million to refinance earlier ECB and L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering 107 million for overseas acquisition.

India Infoline Finance and Global Metal Forging were only two firms that issued RDBs in June this year to raise USD 47.94 million and USD 1.47 million, respectively, for the purpose of on-lending and refinancing rupee loans, showed the data.