Falling rupee may affect profitability of Indian Inc by $2 billion

26 Sep 2011 Evaluate

The depreciating value of rupee has raised concern over the profitability of the Indian Inc, which has tapped abroad loan in US dollar, and the bottom lines this year are expected to take a hit by more than $2 billion this year. Because of the increased cost of capital in domestic market, the Indian companies have been increasingly tapping overseas loans mostly in US dollar. However, the recent fall in Indian rupee has negated the benefits of the cheap overseas funds. The Indian Rupee has depreciated by more than12% to close to Rs 50 per dollar mark from close to Rs 44 per dollar in the start of August.

The Indian rupee has been the worst performer among the major Asian currencies, which declined by a 5% in the past week and this declining trend increase the difficulties for companies who are looking for funds abroad. From January-July 2011, the Indian Inc has borrowed around $21 billion in the foreign currencies through ECB (External Commercial Borrowing) window compared to $18 billion in entire 2010. As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, Indian companies like Reliance Industries, NTPC, Mundra Port and SEZ, Indian Oil, Bharat Aluminium, Vodafone Essar, Air India, GAIL, Adani Power, JSW Steel, Aircel, Tata Tele, Idea Cellular, Suzlon, IDFC, RCOM, REC, Indian Railway Finance Corp, M&M and BPCL, have raise funds from overseas.

In July, around 100 domestic firms tapped abroad loans totaling around $4 billion, which includes Mukesh Ambani-led RIL raising $1.09 billion for refinancing its old loans, Mundra Port raised $150 million for ports business and Indian Oil raised $500 million for import of capital goods. Additionally, a number of domestic telecom firms have raised overseas loans in recent months to refinance earlier loans for payment of their 3G spectrum fees. Experts are of the view that the liquidity deficit and relative higher interest rates in domestic market were encouraging Indian Inc to explore cheap dollar loans for financing their domestic business activities, imports, overseas acquisitions and refinancing of the existing rupee loans.

However, the recent depreciation in the rupee has changed the situation drastically as many Indian firms do not hedge against the currency fluctuations because rupee was stable compared to present time. Hence, many Indian companies may have to book mark-to-market losses on their books for this year if the rupee reverses its downward trend. Last week, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee met the RBI governor D Subbarao to discuss the depreciation in rupee and RBI intervention in currency market. Finance Minister said that intervention in the currency market would be considered at an appropriate stage.

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