India Inc's outward foreign direct investment in March 2021 nearly halved to $1.93 billion (around Rs 14,495 crore), according to the RBI data. Domestic firms had invested $3.86 billion as outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in the year-ago month of March 2020.
In the preceding month (February 2021), the OFDI stood nearly the same at $1.95 billion. Of the total investment committed by the Indian investors in their foreign joint ventures/wholly-owned subsidiaries in March this year, $1.15 billion was in the form of issuance of guarantees.
Rest of $413.25 million was in the form of loan and $363.54 million was through equity capital, the data showed. The major investors were telecom major Bharti Airtel Ltd $750 million in a wholly-owned unit in Mauritius; pharma firm Lupin Ltd $250 million in a JV in the US, SRF Ltd $83.83 million in a wholly-owned subsidiary (WoS) in the Netherlands.
Mahindra & Mahindra invested $84.52 million in WoS in Mauritius and The Indian Hotels Co Ltd $59.59 million in its wholly-owned subsidiary in the Netherlands. The RBI said the data is provisional and subject to change based on the online reporting by the authorised dealer (AD) banks.