India Inc is aggressively investing abroad; direct investment goes up by 48% this year

Direct investments by Indian firms overseas increased by 48.2 per cent year-on-year to $2.69 billion in May, according to the RBI data. They had invested $1.82 billion in their overseas ventures in same month of last year.

However, the overseas direct investment in May was much lower than $4.11 billion in April this year.

The investments by the Indian companies were a mix of issuance of guarantees ($1.95 billion), loans (365.93 million) and equity ($383.71 million).

The prominent investors overseas during the month include Videocon Oil Ventures $204.08 million, Videocon Industries $145 million and Larsen & Toubro Ltd $144.48 million.

Among other major investors are JSW Steel $81.50 million and Bombay Burma Trading Corporation $66.3 million.