Corporate India's overseas investments reach $12.25 billion during FY21: Care Ratings

Corporate India has invested $ 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 $ 13 billion, while FDI inflows had hit a record $ 76 billion, according to the ratings agency.

Of the total $ 12.25 billion outward FDI during April-November this fiscal, the actual outflow was $ 6.35 billion, of which $ 2.97 billion was through equities and $ 3.38 billion in loan commitments and the balance $ 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 $ 35.73 billion, the highest-ever for the period, and 13 per cent higher than same period in FY20 when it stood at $ 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 $ 76 billion, which after adjusting for repatriation of around $18 billion, meant $ 56 billion of foreign direct investment, which was the highest achieved on record. In FY20, around $ 13 billion was invested outside, which was the second successive year of double-digit overseas investment since FY13. But the peak was $ 19 billion in FY09 and $ 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 ($ 3.89 billion), followed by manufacturing at $ 3.45 billion, agriculture and mining ($ 1.90 billion) and wholesale, retail trade and hotels ($ 1.73 billion).

Destination-wise, the US topped the list by attracting $ 2.36 billion, followed by Singapore ($ 2.07 billion), the Netherlands ($ 1.50 billion), British Virgin Islands ($ 1.37 billion) and Mauritius ($ 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 $ 9.25 billion of the total $ 12.25 billion was pumped into wholly owned subsidiaries and the balance $ 3 billion into joint ventures. Leading the companies' chart was ONGC Videsh, which invested $ 1.85 billion in various oil fields.

The second was JSW Steel which invested $ 865 million, followed by Haldia Petrochemicals ($ 599 million), HCL Technologies ($ 587 million), Mahindra & Mahindra ($ 551 million), Adani Properties ($ 391 million), Lupin ($ 382 million), Piramal Enterprises ($ 312 million), Cadila Healthcare ($ 222 million), Infosys ($ 221 million) and Tata Steel at $ 200 million.