India Inc invests $797 mn overseas in January

MUMBAI: Overseas investments by Indian companies stood at $797 million in January, with Tata Group, infrastructure major IL&FS and pharma major Lupin emerging as major investors.

As many as 418 overseas investment transactions were carried out by various companies last month. However, outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) in the month of January was over 45 per cent less than the USD 1.46 billion figure during December 2011, according to the Reserve Bank data released today.

Experts attributed the month-on-month decline to the global economic slowdown and said such variations in monthly outbound FDI is normal.

Tata Communications committed USD 76.78 million to its Singapore based wholly-owned subsidiary 'VSNL International PTE Ltd' which is involved in transport, storage and communication services.

Three other Tata Group firms, Tata Chemicals, Tata Motors and Tata Power -- also committed a total of USD 7.33 million in their respective subsidiaries and joint ventures in Singapore, Bhutan, the UK and Mauritius.

In January, IL&FS Transportation Networks committed USD 48.16 million to its US-based wholly-owned subsidiary (WoS) INTL PTE Ltd which is engaged in manufacturing business.

Another group company, IL&FS Technologies Ltd, committed USD 24.17 million to its Philippines-based WoS IL&FS Technologies Singapore which is into financial, insurance, real estate and business services.

Lupin Ltd invested USD 39.38 million in its Netherlands- based WoS Lupin Holsings BV. In the first ten months of the current fiscal (April- January), the outward FDIs and FDI commitments reached almost USD 26.1 billion, according to the RBI data.

While Indian companies are expanding overseas footprint, the FDI inflows during the April-November period (latest data available) reached USD 22.83 billion. In the last fiscal (2010-11) the FDI inflows crossed USD 19.43 billion.