Mumbai: Corporate India has invested USD 12.25 billion overseas during the first eight months of the current fiscal, most of which has gone into the firms’ wholly-owned subsidiaries in the US, Singapore or the Netherlands, according to data collated by Care Ratings.
In the whole of FY20, total foreign direct investment (FDI) by domestic companies was USD 13 billion, while FDI inflows had hit a record USD 76 billion, according to the ratings agency.
Of the total USD 12.25 billion outward FDI during April-November this fiscal, the actual outflow was USD 6.35 billion, of which USD 2.97 billion was through equities and USD 3.38 billion in loan commitments and the balance USD 5.90 billion was in the form of guarantees, the agency said quoting RBI data.
As against this, during the first five months of the current fiscal, total FDI inflows rose to USD 35.73 billion, the highest-ever for the period, and 13 per cent higher than same period in FY20 when it stood at USD 31.60 billion. This was primarily driven by the string of deals that Reliance Industries clinched for its telecom and retail arms.
For the full FY20, inflows stood at USD 76 billion, which after adjusting for repatriation of around USD18 billion, meant USD 56 billion of foreign direct investment, which was the highest achieved on record.
In FY20, around USD 13 billion was invested outside, which was the second successive year of double-digit overseas investment since FY13. But the peak was USD 19 billion in FY09 and USD 18 billion in FY08.
From a sectoral point of view, 90 per cent of the money invested overseas was in financials, insurance and business services (USD 3.89 billion), followed by manufacturing at USD 3.45 billion, agriculture and mining (USD 1.90 billion) and wholesale, retail trade and hotels (USD 1.73 billion).
Destination-wise, the US topped the list by attracting USD 2.36 billion, followed by Singapore (USD 2.07 billion), the Netherlands (USD 1.50 billion), British Virgin Islands (USD 1.37 billion) and Mauritius (USD 1.30 billion).
These five countries accounted for nearly 70 per cent of total FDI outflows from the country.
As much as 76 per cent or USD 9.25 billion of the total USD 12.25 billion was pumped into wholly-owned subsidiaries and the balance USD 3 billion into joint ventures.
Leading the companies’ chart was ONGC Videsh, which invested USD 1.85 billion in various oil fields.
The second was JSW Steel which invested USD 865 million, followed by Haldia Petrochemicals (USD 599 million), HCL Technologies (USD 587 million), Mahindra & Mahindra (USD 551 million), Adani Properties (USD 391 million), Lupin (USD 382 million), Piramal Enterprises (USD 312 million), Cadila Healthcare (USD 222 million), Infosys (USD 221 million) and Tata Steel at USD 200 million.
PTI