Indian companies had raised Rs 4,975 crore by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDs) to retail investors in 2017-18 to meet their business requirements, down 83 per cent over the preceding year.

In 2016-17, India Inc had mobilised Rs 29,558 crore through NCDs, according to latest data with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Overall, in terms of volume, there were seven NCD issues in the recently-concluded fiscal against 16 in 2016-17.

Companies raised money for funding expansion plans, retiring debt, supporting working capital requirements and other general corporate purposes. NCDs are loan-linked bonds that cannot be converted into stocks and usually offer higher interest rates than convertible debentures.

Market analysts said fund-raising via NCDs was less compared to the preceding financial year as companies preferred initial public offering (IPO) and qualified institutional placement (QIP) route to garner funds.

India Inc mopped-up a record over Rs 84,000 crore through IPOs during last fiscal and more than Rs 62,000 via QIPs. In the previous fiscal, Kosammattam Finance went for NCDs twice to mobilise capital and raised over Rs 443 crore.

Individually, Muthoot Finance raised Rs 1,969 crore through this route against the target of Rs 200 crore, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services garnered Rs 1,150 crore against the base size of Rs 250 crore.

Besides, Srei Equipment Finance mopped up Rs 562 crore against the base size of Rs 500 crore, Edelweiss Retail Finance raked in Rs 500 crore compared to the target of Rs 250 crore and Srei Infrastructure Finance garnered Rs 351 crore against the base amount of Rs 200 crore.

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