Indian companies raise Rs 35,000 crore via private placement of bonds in June

India Inc mopped-up more than Rs 35,000 crore through private placement of debt securities, or bonds in June, a marginal rise of four per cent from the preceding month.

In debt private placements, firms issue debt securities, or bonds, to institutional investors to raise capital.

According to latest data available with the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Indian firms raked in a total of Rs 35,214 crore from the debt on a private placement basis route in June, a slight increase from Rs 33,759 crore garnered in May.

In April, companies had raised Rs 41,812 crore, the highest-level in nine months.

At Rs 41,812-crore, the amount was the highest raised by Indian companies through private placement of bonds since July 2012, when they had raked in Rs 57,745 crore via 202 issues.

However, the number of issuances fallen to 222 in June from 236 in the previous month.

Market experts believe companies have opted for private placement of debt route for raising funds because of simple disclosure norms and weakness in rupee.

Of late, the Indian currency has been consistently hitting new record lows and it slumped to a life-time low of 61.22 (intra-day) against the US dollar on July 8. Since April 30, the rupee has depreciated by about 13 per cent.

Sebi, however, did not disclose the segment-wise fund raising details.

With this, overall funds raised by Indian companies have reached to Rs 2.08 lakh crore in the first half of the year.

In comparison, firms had mopped up a total of Rs 1.46 lakh crore in the first-six month of 2012.

In the financial year ended March 31, 2013, listed firms raised Rs 3.4 lakh crore through private placement of debt securities, the highest in five years. In 2011-12, companies had garnered Rs 2.10 lakh crore.