External Commercial Borrowings: Indian companies raised over $50 billion in ECB till Feb last fiscal

Mumbai: External commercial borrowings (ECB) by Indian companies topped $50 billion in the last fiscal year until February, latest central bank data showed, with Tata Steel heading the list of such fund raisers. ECB registrations by companies, including non-banking finance companies, stood at $2.63 billion in February.

Accounting for February data, total ECB registrations stood at $50.1 billion in the April-February period of FY25. Asia’s oldest steelmaker raised $750 million through ECBs maturing in 6 years for overseas investment in JVs and wholly-owned subsidiaries, the RBI data showed.

This was followed by Varanasi Aurangabad NH-2 Tollway, which raised over $370 million in two tranches. The proceeds will be used partly to refinance rupee loans and infrastructure development.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial, Cholamandalam Investment, Vastu Housing Finance, REC were among the lenders who raised overseas loans in February. In FY25, a slew of non-banking finance companies had raised foreign currency loans taking advantage of competitive borrowings.