India Inc's foreign funds swell 60 percent

India’s overseas fund-raising through bonds, convertibles and equities jumped 60 per cent during January-September 2005 to US$ 13 billion from US$ 8.2 billion in the first nine months of 2004. The increase does not come at the cost of domestic fund-raising. In the first nine months of 2005, corporate India raised Rs 48,080 crore from domestic bond issues and IPOs. The comparable figure last year was Rs 48,760 crore.

The other reason for this huge rise in overseas fund-raising is the robust investment climate with most corporates raising resources to finance capacity addition on the back of healthy order books.

“India second most attractive FDI destination”

Transnational corporations find India the most attractive global business destination after China, according to the World Investment Report 2005 released by Unctad .
The Unctad survey on the foreign direct investment prospects for 2005-06, covering 81 of the world's largest transnational corporations and 74 investment experts, found China was considered the most attractive location by 85 per cent of the experts and 87 per cent of the corporations.
India has been ranked the third most attractive global destination by 42 per cent of the experts and the second most attractive location by 51 per cent of the corporations.

“India's high ranking, albeit with 30 per cent fewer responses than China's, is even more remarkable, given that foreign investment inflows to the country have been modest till recently,” the survey said.
The United States, Brazil, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany are some of the other countries that figure among the top 10 business destinations in the survey.

For the first time, FDI flows have registered an increase of 2 per cent in 2004. Of this, inflows to the

developing countries have increased by 40 per cent to $233 billion.

Ford to invest US$186 million

Ford has decided to invest in three projects at Mayapur in West Bengal that hold potential for creating 15,000 jobs and arrival of three million tourists. The projects to be executed by Alfred Ford's company ABF International, envisage setting up of a Village Industries Park, a Tourist Hospitality complex and a Vedic Planetarium at Mayapur, home to the global headquarters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).ABF has formed three separate bodies for the stand-alone projects. The Industrial Park project will be under the Mayapur Village Industries Park Pvt Ltd, while the tourism project would be taken up by Mayapur Tourism Development Pvt Ltd. The Vedic Planetarium would be executed by the Mayapur Project Society, a charitable body., Sims said. The total land requriement for the projects would be about 60 acre.

Equity Firm Carlyle to invest US$200 million

Washington-based private equity firm Carlyle Group expects to invest about $200 million in buyouts in India over the next two years, mainly in

Taiwan and other countries to locate their units at Hyderabad.

EMC to invest US$ 100 million

EMC, the US$ 8 billion global player in the external storage market, is investing $100 million in India over five years (2003-07) to develop the market and to scale up its development and support activities in India. According to IDC, EMC has close to 29 per cent market share in India in the external storage market space. EMC is banking on India to drive its future growth.

JP Morgan Chase sets centre in Bangalore

JP Morgan Chase, global financial services firm with assets of US$ 1.1 trillion, has picked up a 1.2 lakh square feet of office space in Bangalore. The company is said to be setting up a large financial back office in the city in addition to its existing offices in Mumbai.

Flextronics to invest more

Flextronics International Ltd., the world's top contract electronics maker, will invest an initial US$ 30 - US$ 50 million to set up a second factory in India and pump in another US$ 300 - US$ 500 million over thenext 10-15 years, according to company sources. Singapore-based, Nasdaq-listed Flextronics has a manufacturing plant in Bangalore and a logistics centre in Chennai, also known as Madras.

Investment in SEZs, Catching up

Investments worth US$2.27 billion have been lined up for the next three years, and the SEZ are much sought after by the private sector companies, PSUs, state governments and foreign investors. According to Commerce and industry, minister Kamal Nath the investments are flowing into various areas, including telecom, IT, software, auto ancillaries, gems and jewellery, textiles, handicrafts and electronics.