Indian corporates invest over $ 5.6 bn abroad in 2016-17

Indian corporates buy stakes or pay off their loans in overseas companies to fund their global operations. In 2016-17, Indian companies invested around $ 5.6 billion in Mauritius and around $ 55.7 billion in Singapore. Most of the funds were invested in equity and for corporate guarantees in foreign subsidiaries.

The Godrej Group was one of the groups that have invested through Mauritius. The group has invested around $ 8.5 million in its subsidiaries of Mauritius-based (Godrej Tanzania Holdings Limited and Godrej Africa) in August 2016. Again, just after one month, the group invested around $ 10 million in Godrej Consumer Products (Mauritius-based subsidiary). Investments through Mauritius were mostly for servicing loans.

In February 2017, Bharti Airtel invested around $ 450 million in Network I2I Ltd, which is based in Mauritius. The Network I2I in turn has holdings in three other international subsidiaries, namely, Bharti Airtel International Ltd (Mauritius), Bharti Airtel International BV (Netherlands) and Bharti International (Singapore). In 2017, Bharti Airtel was one of the biggest investors through Mauritius.

There are other companies also such as Pallava Dwellers Pvt Ltd (investments ranging from $11 million to over $5 million), GMR Infrastructure (routed $60 million and $49 million in April and May 2016, respectively), Vadinagar Oil Terminal Limited ($170 million)