Overseas investment by Indian firms halves to $1.15 billion in December

Overseas Investments or outward foreign direct investments by Indian firms in the month of December fell to $1.15 billion from $2.61 billion in the same month last fiscal, according to the RBI data. The overseas investments in the month of November 2015 stood at $2 billion. Direct investments by Indian firms overseas more than halved from a year ago in December.

The total outward foreign direct investment of $1.15 billion was in the form of equity, loan and issue of guarantee. Of the total investment equity, loan and issue of guarantee stood at $261.76 million, $219.96 million and $663.56 million respectively in the month of December 2015 as compared to $223.12 million, $210.84 million and $2177.59 million respectively during December 2014.

Major overseas investors during the month were Emcure Pharmaceuticals with a combined investment of $102.45 million in Canadian and Nigerian wholly owned units (WOS) for manufacturing, GAIL India in US for agriculture and mining with investment of $114 million in a WOS, Essar Steel India in UAE based WOS with investment of $58.92 million for manufacturing. Other investors include Hasham Traders PI International Holdings in the US-based wholly-owned subsidiary with an investment of $55.6 million in services.