RBI relaxed ECB norms for Infra firms

27 Sep 2011 Evaluate

In order to attract more foreign fund at the time of global slowdown, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) relaxed the norms for the infrastructure companies with direct foreign equity up to 25% to raise funds in aboard without government’s permission. In a statement the RBI said, on a review, it has been decided, to further liberalize the External Commercial Borrowings (ECBs) policy in respect of the infrastructure sector.

The RBI allowed direct foreign equity holder which is holding at least 25% of the paid-up capital and indirect foreign equity holder holding minimum of 51% of the paid-up capital, to provide credit enhancement for the domestic debt raise by the Indian firms engaged exclusively in the development of infrastructure via issue of capital market instruments.

It includes Infrastructure Finance Companies (IFCs) and no prior approval will be required from the RBI for providing such credit enhancements, RBI said. The company meeting foreign equity criteria will not require permission for raising ECB up to $5 million.

Now onwards the term debt in the debt-equity ratio will be replaced with ECB liability and the ratio will be known as ECB liability-equity ratio to make the term signify true position as other borrowings or debt are not considered in working out this ratio, RBI noted.
 
Service sector units, in addition to those in hotels, hospitals and software, could also be considered as eligible borrowers if the loan is obtained from foreign equity holders, RBI’s notification said. By adding further it says this would facilitate borrowing by training institutions, R&D, miscellaneous service companies, etc. ECB from a group company may also be permitted provided both the borrower and the foreign lender are subsidiaries of the same parent, it added.

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