Indian firms foreign investments double in March to $3 bn

Mumbai April 18 (IANS) Indian companies foreign direct investment (FDI) in March in their overseas ventures more than doubled to $2.99 billion according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday.

During the same month last year Indian firms had invested a total of $1.42 billion into their overseas joint ventures or subsidiaries.

The March 2017 overseas investments were much higher than those in February at $867.53 million the RBI said

These investments came in the form of equities totalling $1.99 billion loans of $742.60 million and issue of guarantees worth $251.40 million.

The major investors include Bharti Airtel with $765.20 million Tata International at $179.22 million and state-run ONGC Videsh investing $75.49 million.

Among countries Mauritius expectedly topped the list with an amount of $1.3 billion while Singapore came third with $599 million as these two countries are used by companies from across the world to route investments.

The UK came second attracting Indian investment of $790 million in March.

--IANS
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