ECBs by Indian cos contract 1.1 billion in September: RBI data

External commercial borrowings (ECB) contracted $1.1 billion sequentially in September, according to the latest Data released by the Reserve Bank of India. ECB registrations by Indian companies through both the automatic and the approval route combined amounted to $4.8 billion in September, down from $5.9 billion in August.

Financial services companies accounted for a bulk of ECB registrations for the month with Power Finance Corporation alone seeking to raise $ 1.06 billion from the approval route. Other major borrowers in the automatic route included Shriram Finance which sought to raise $750 million and Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company which sought to raise $250 million during the month. All the finance companies are tapping the ECB market for on-lending activities.

The slow pace of growth in the in the domestic economy, tighter global liquidity conditions, a depreciating rupee is making ECBs very unattractive to those borrowers who do have a natural hedge as the forward premium tends to rise when the rupee is weakening against the dollar and there is uncertainty in the external sector outlook.