India Inc raises $8.3 bn, but where are the benefits?

New Delhi: Liquid money is flowing through the veins and arteries (read corporate houses) of the Indian economy. Thanks to Manmohan Singh and his industry-friendly policies, Indian corporate houses along-with their business allies in United States are rolling in money.

A recent estimate shows that few of the biggest conglomerates or corporate houses have borrowed money to the tune of 8.3 billion dollars—raised through 33 deals in the first half of the year with a number of private and public sector banks.

Reliance Industries alone mopped up a whopping USD 2.7 billion.

But the question is where is all the money? What about passing the benefits down to the poorer sections of the economy? Are these companies passing the benefit back in terms of employment, remuneration to employees, dividends? Or are they ploughing it all back in the business?

Infosys chief mentor, NR Narayana Murthy hinted a few weeks back that the company—in order to re-invest the profits into business—plans to limit its dividends to 20 per cent or below.

“In the USA, high-tech and growth companies don’t give anything (read dividend) because they want to plough back all that into the business. As there is a tradition of giving out dividend in India, we have decided to have a policy of 20 per cent,” Murthy pointed out at the companies 26th annual general meeting.

Big corporate houses are mopping money by way of syndicated loans, which refers to a large sum of funds provided by a group of banks collectively to a borrower. There is usually one lead bank that takes a percentage of the loan and syndicates the rest to other banks.

Syndicated loans volume of India Inc was at 8.3 billion dollar for the first half of this calendar year, which has shown a steady growth over previous year figure of 8.1 billion dollar through 41 deals," global consulting firm Dealogic was quoted by PTI.

ROLLING IN MONEY
	Corporate behemoth RIL single handedly raised 2.7 billion dollar by syndicated loans through three deals with a consortium of 26 banks in the first six months of this year.
	Tata Group raised 400 million dollar, British mobile giant Vodafone and largest lender State Bank of India both mopped up 300 million dollar each, while HDFC gathered 285 million dollar through syndicated loans.
	Other firms among top ten borrowers from India were - realty player Emmar MGF Land, Horizon India BV, Cheung Kong Holdings, Havell's Netherland NV and Jaiprakash Associates.
	·Global financing major Citigroup topped the chart of book runners with volume of 974 million dollar through four deals amounting to a market share of 11.7 per cent.
	Standard Chartered followed suit with a volume of 667 million dollar by way of eight deals representing 8 per cent share of the market.