Fund raising via debt placement at 16-month high of Rs 71K cr

India Inc raised a staggering Rs 71,165 crore through private placement of corporate debt securities or bonds in August -- highest in 16 months -- to fund business expansion plans and to support working capital requirements. In debt private placements, firms issue debt securities or bonds to institutional investors to raise capital. According to the data available with Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), companies garnered a total of Rs 71,165 crore from debt on a private placement basis in August 2016, much higher than Rs 46,564 crore raised in the year-ago period. 

This was the highest ever fund raising by Indian companies in a single month since April 2015, when firms had raked in Rs 84,807 crore. Comparatively, in July, companies had garnered Rs 36,774 crore through this route. In terms of numbers, 375 issues were made last month as compared to 272 in August last year. Most of the funds have been raised for expansion of business plans and to support working capital requirements. With the latest fund mobilisation, overall capital raised through private placement of debt securities has reached Rs 2.43 lakh crore in the current financial year (2016-17) so far. In 2015-16, capital raised through private placement of debt securities stood at Rs 4.58 lakh crore.