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ABSTRACT
India has become an indispensable strategic global partner for both multinational corporations
and to their home countries. The inward foreign direct investments and outward investments
have reached a historic high in the recent years. Indian firms are now growing globally in order
to service overseas markets. The increasing engagement of the Indian companies in the world
markets is not only an indication of the maturity reached by Indian Industry but also the extent of
their participation in the overall globalization process. In this context, this study pertains to
outward FDI from India. the mounting competitiveness of Indian multinationals and their
increasing desire to venture abroad to expand markets, operate near to clients and acquire
technology and brand names are key drivers pushing more Indian firms to go abroad. Substantial
improvements in the country's economic performance and the competitiveness of its firms and
their strategy, resulting from ongoing liberalisation in economic and outward FDI (OFDI)
policies, made these developments possible. Hence, Government should support Indian firms in
overseas expansion because such expansions will increase home country exports and provide
parents firms cheaper raw material through backward FDI.
KEYWORDS: Foreign markets, Indian Multinationals and Outward FDI.
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The basic tenet of a nations development strategy since 1990s is the global economic integration
through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which has become the heart of globalization of the
world economy. FDI is regarded an essential component of every nations efforts toward
economic development. The success of any nation in attracting foreign investment is directly
proportional to that nations resources and the existence of lucrative investment opportunities.
The role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the economic development is very crucial as it
creates new jobs, provides skilled technical and managerial labour and transfers the technology
(Pradhan, 2009). Over the last three decades, industrialization has been much faster as compared
to 1950s and 1960s due to active participation of MNEs at international level. Multinationals
corporations are reckoned as vehicles for providing new technology, productive capacity,
knowledge transfer, natural resources and managerial skills. They generate spillover effects that
help the domestic enterprises to increase their ownership advantages.
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INTRODUCTION
Stage 2: as the per capita income increases, the attractiveness of economy to be recipient of FDI
increases due to growing internal markets, improvement of infrastructure etc., also improve the
ownership advantages of indigenous firms, especially when they are encouraged by government
to invest abroad.
Stage 3: at this stage, as per capita income increases further, there is a gradual decrease in the
growth on inward FDI while there is an increase in the rate of growth of outward FDI.
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Stage 1: at very low levels of income, countries possess few location specific advantages to
attract FDI and also they possess no firm with such ownership specific advantages to go
international.
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The notion of investment led economic growth has put forward the idea that the
outward and inward FDI trend of a country is related to its economic growth relative to the rest
of the world. It suggests that the countries metamorphose five different stages of development.
These stages are being classified according to the propensity of the countries to be outward or
inward investor (Dunning and Narula, 1994). This propensity, in turn depends on the extent and
pattern of the ownership- specific advantages and the advantages of domestic firms, its locational
advantages and the degree of utilization of ownership-specific advantages by the domestic and
foreign firms in the internalisation of markets. Dunning had suggested that there are five stages
in term of per capita income and related position on the investment development path. They are;
Stage 4: with further increase in per capita income, the countrys outward investment stock
equals or exceeds that of inward FDI.
Stage 5: at still higher levels of income both inward and outward FDI are likely to continue to
increase. This is the position that a number of developed and developing countries are now
approaching. As for as India is concerned, the inward and outward flow of foreign direct
investments have reached a historic high in the recent past. The process of economic reforms
initiated since 1991 has been helping India to scale greater heights both in terms of the inflow
and outflows of foreign investments.
GLOBAL TREND IN OUTWARD FDI (OFDI)
A number of economies have seen an improvement in their outward FDI performance
over the past 15 years. The faster growth of outward FDI indicates that their enterprises are
building ownership advantages rapidly and/or are increasingly choosing to exploit their
advantages by establishing operations in foreign locations. Global FDI outflows in 2009 declined
by 39 per cent to $1,171 billion mirroring the trend in inflows on account of crisis. The global
economic and financial crisis continued to weigh on FDI outflows from developed countries for
the second year in a row. In addition, it started to affect outflows from developing and transition
economies.
TABLE: 1
GLOBAL FDI OUTFLOWS - BY REGION 20052009
(BILLIONS OF DOLLARS)
Region
World
881
Developed economies
749
2006
1323
2007
2,268
2008
2009
1,911
1,171
1087
1,924
1,572
821
118
212
292
296
229
Africa
11
10
36
83
56
82
47
West Asia
12
23
47
38
23
67
118
178
166
153
14
24
52
61
51
Developing economies
51
2005
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FDI outflows
85
82.2
84.8
81.5
74.5
Developing economies
13.3
16.0
12.9
15.4
20.8
Africa
0.3
0.6
0.5
0.5
0.5
4.1
4.8
2.5
4.3
4.3
West Asia
1.4
1.8
2.1
2.0
2.1
7.6
8.9
7.9
8.6
13.9
1.6
1.8
2.3
3.1
4.6
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In recent years, overseas investment by Indian firms has occupied the headlines and
attracted attention policy makers across world symbolising the increasing global economic
integration of the Indian economy. Initial liberalization of Indian policy towards outward FDI
were made in the early 1990s. However, significant policy changes since 2000 contributed to the
recent rapid growth of Indian outward FDI flows. India has become the worlds 21st largest
outward investor (Nazareth, 2009). Indian firms are also amongst those that have been investing
since many years but their immense growth at international level occurred especially after late
1990s (Sauvant 2005). During the restricted phase (pre-1990), home as well as many of the host
countries with regard to Indian MNEs imposed restrictions that gave these firms less chances to
grow at international level. Indian firms investing abroad during the restricted phase were mostly
conglomerates (Lall, 1982) competing into those sectors that required simple technology, low
product differentiation and more labour intensive techniques but they have worked in the
developing countries more efficiently than the developed countries. During the liberalized phase
(Hansen, 2003), continual industrialization in the domestic market, experience attained from
home and abroad, financial relaxation and local government supports paved the way for Indian
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MNEs to invest globally. They not only invested into developing countries but their OFDI share
into developed countries also increased after 1990s so much so that India has been ranked 7th in
UK during 2003-04 in terms of creation of job vacancies (Steven, 2006) and number of project
initiated through FDI and similarly Indian OFDI is ranked 13 th in France in terms of
commencing projects into the country.
TABLE: 2
INDIAS FDI OUTFLOWS (US $ MILLION)
YEAR
OFDI
OFDI stock
1990
1657
124
2000
16339
1733
2010
197939
92407
UNCTAD /WIR2011
Indian multinationals have been investing vigorously at international level and their
growth in the world economy can be rationalised from total numbers of Indian firms, outward
stocks & flows as depicted in Table 2. The total number of host countries in the case of Indian
OFDI that was 37 before 1990s has increased to 128 in 2006 and further increased to 415 in 2011
as per RBIs outward FDI statistics. The stocks of Indian OFDI, the net value of all the
productive assets held abroad by the resident of India, have also increased to $92407 million
from just $ 124 million in 1990. The percentage increase of Indian OFDI stocks is standing at 2nd
highest position among emerging countries and this increase is even more than that of developed
countries, like Austria, Greece, Ireland and some other developing countries.
TABLE: 3
April - March
Financial Commitment
Equity
Loan
Guarantee
Issued
Total
2007-2008
11269.18
2718.02
6959.96
20947.16
2008-2009
10732.26
3329.00
3104.88
17166.14
2009-2010
6763.27
3620.19
7603.79
17987.25
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Period
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2010-2011
2011 April
December
to
9351.77
7346.89
27230.52
43929.18
5102.41
6871.51
13309.73
25283.65
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There are four dominant ways (Jaya Prakash Pradhan, 2006) in which overseas acquisitions can
affect the competitive strength of the Indian companies. First, it can be a strategy to gain access
to firm-specific assets like new products, brands, technology and skills, thus, augmenting
competitive assets base of the Indian firms. Second, it can provide easy access to an existing
market in foreign countries like customer base of the acquired company. Third, Indian firms can
also get access to marketing and distribution channels of the overseas entity. Fourth, the Indian
company may benefit from operating synergies from overseas acquisitions. Some of the major
mergers and acquitions by Indian firms are presented in Table: 4.
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Until upto a couple of year back, the news that Indian companies having acquired
American-European entities was very rare. However, this scenario has taken a sudden U turn.
Nowadays, news of Indian companies acquiring a foreign business is more common than other
way round. Buoyant Indian economy, extra cash with Indian corporate, favourable government
policies and newly found dynamism in Indian businessmen have all contributed to this new
acquisition trend. The increasing engagement of the Indian companies in the world markets is
not only an indication of the maturity reached by Indian Industry but also the extent of their
participation in the overall globalization process. Generally global investments are made in two
forms viz., Merger and Acquisition (M&A) and Greenfield investments.
TABLE: 4
MAJOR GLOBAL M&A BY INDIAN COMPANIES
Acquiring Company
Target Company
Value
Year
($ Million)
13,000 2007
Bharti Airtel
Zain (Africa)
9,000 2010
Hindalco Industries
5,766 2007
ONGC
2800 2009
Tata Motors
2500 2008
Suzlon Energy
1700 2006
1467 2007
ONGC
Petrobras (Brazil)
1400 2006
United Breweries
1176 2007
Tata Power
1100 2007
GMR Infrastructure
Intergen (Netherlands)
1100 2008
600 2005
Wipro
Infocrossing (US)
600 2007
Dr Reddy's Laboratories
Betapharm (Germany)
582 2006
Tata Tea
431 2000
Ranbaxy Laboratories
Terapia SA (Romania)
324 2006
Wockhardt
Negma Laboratories
265 2007
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Tata Steel
Zain in a deal that made the firm the world's No. 5 wireless carrier by subscribers. As shown in
Table: 4 that self grown Indian MNEs acquired controlling interest in overseas firms
aggressively in order to spread their wings and become the global players. Indian MNEs
continue to invest in developed-country based companies, particularly now that they are more
affordable due to the global crisis. An estimate by PricewaterhouseCoopers reports that India
might be the largest source of emerging market MNEs by 2024, with 20% more new MNEs than
China, and over 2,200 Indian firms are likely to invest overseas in the next fifteen years.
FIGURE: 1
11%
Manufacturing
7%
43%
Wholesale, Retail
Trade, Hotels etc.,
Finance, Insurance & Real
Estate
Construction
28%
Others
It can be observed from Figure: 1 that the manufacturing industry is the most dominant in terms
of outward FDI from India. Figure: 1 displays the sector wise outward FDI pattern from which it
is evident that manufacturing sector constitute lions share of Indias outward FDI with 43%.
Within the manufacturing sector, industries such as electronic equipment production, production
of chemicals, pharma, telecommunication, cement production, power generation and software
development are among to the dominant investors abroad. Financial services companies rank
second with 28% of the outflows from India. The category of others comprises mainly outward
FDI in the field of oil exploration, shipping, transport equipment, medical services and plastic
products. The need to maintain continuous supplies to meet the increasing demand of the Indian
economy has also been an important consideration for investment in manufacturing.
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11%
TABLE: 5
INDIA: MAJOR GREENFIELD PROJECTS, BY OUTWARD INVESTING FIRM
Rank
Year
Investing company
Host economy
Value $ million
2009
NTPC
Iran
5,150
2007
GAIL India
Saudi Arabia
4,150
2008
Tata Group
Vietnam
3,500
2008
ONGC
Iran
3,000
2006
ONGC
Iran
2,000
2008
Era Group
Zambia
1,800
2007
Mahindra Satyam
Malaysia
1,714
2009
Essar Group
Kenya
1,701
2007
Videocon Industries
Poland
1,700
10
2007
Ispat Industries
Philippines
1,600
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2%
Mauritius
14%
35%
Netherland
USA
5%
5%
5%
7%
13%
United Kingdom
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The motives for outward FDI from India hold a different view across industries and over
time. However, certain factors stand out as the main drivers. The increasing quantity of homebased Indian firms and their enhanced ownership specific advantages, including financial
competence, are among the key drivers. In addition, the growing competitiveness of Indian firms
involved in providing outsourced business and IT services to overseas clients has provided a
push for these firms themselves to go offshore to operate in close proximity to their customers
and to spread out their intensification opportunities in markets out of the country. The success of
Indian firms as service providers in the outsourcing of IT services, BPO and call centers by
developed-country companies has exposed them to knowledge and methods for conducting
international business, and induced outward FDI through demonstration and spillover effect.
Indian firms are investing abroad to access foreign markets, production facilities and
international brand names. For instance, Tata Tea acquired Tetley Tea for access to the Tetley
brand name and market. Access to technology and knowledge has been a strategic consideration
for Indian firms seeking to bolster their competitiveness and to move up their production value
chain. In 2003, WIPRO acquired Nerve Wire Inc (United States) to secure deep domain
knowledge and other IT related benefits, including access to markets. Reliance Infocomm paid
money for Flag Telecom (United Kingdom) to access to the undersea cable network and connect
with key regions such as Asia, Europe and the United States. Moreover, given the continuing
difficulty in acquiring huge tracts of land for agricultural purposes and the growing resistance to
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large mining projects in India, securing natural resources is becoming an important driver for
Indian outward FDI. For instance, Hindalco acquired two copper mines in Australia and Oil and
Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) Ltd, to secure the supply of resources. FICCI (2006) has
identified a number of motives including access to foreign technology, sourcing of raw materials,
and aspirations for global leadership. The acquisitions in pharmaceutical and automotive sectors
owe its origin to market access considerations intended to serve large customer base. Many of
the large takeovers in the metal and metal products industries were intended to reinforce the
global competitiveness of the investing firms rather than to exploit their existing set of
advantages.
India is now the world's 13th largest FDI host country and world's 21st largest outward
investor with an investment of over US$ 75 billion across the world over the past decade, which
is significant given its historically minuscule foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows.
Substantial improvements in the country's economic performance and the competitiveness of its
firms and their strategy, resulting from ongoing liberalisation in economic and outward FDI
(OFDI) policies, made these developments possible. Indian firms now invest across a wide
variety of sectors and countries, departing from their historical focus on trading and textile
investments in developing countries. Following the crisis-induced drop in Indian OFDI in 2009,
Indian firms are once again increasing their overseas investment, including through mergers and
acquisitions (M&As). Hence, the mounting competitiveness of Indian multinationals and their
increasing desire to venture abroad to expand markets, operate near to clients and acquire
technology and brand names are key drivers pushing more Indian firms to go abroad. Indias
membership in various regional integration arrangements Free Trade Agreement, South Asia
Free Trade Area (SAFTA), Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation, IndoLanka Free Trade Agreement and the imminent ASEAN-India free trade agreements will also
provide Indian firms with a favourable platform to strengthen their presence in these partner
economies. Not least, the encouragement and the significant liberalization of policies by the
Government of India will continue to play an instrumental role in the rapid expansion of Indian
firms abroad. It can also be expected that foreign investments in the natural resource sectors will
surge, given the continuing difficulty in acquiring large tracts of land for agricultural purposes
and the growing resistance to large mining projects in India. Taking the case of the Indian
multinationals, it is concluded that liberalization of Indian economy and globalisation has shifted
the direction and location of investment such that Indian firms are investing more in the
developed economies as compared to developing ones. In order to give further fillip,
Government should support rather than discourage Indian firms in overseas expansion because
such expansions will increase home country exports and provide parents firms cheaper raw
material through backward FDI.
REFERENCES
1. Dunning and Narula (1994), World Investment Report, UNCTAD, pp 237
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CONCLUSION
59
2. Hansen Michael W. (2003), Outward foreign direct investment from India: theory and
evidence, CBDS Working Paper No. 8
3. Jaya Prakash Pradhan and Abhinav Alakshendra (2006), Overseas Acquisition versus
Greenfield Foreign Investment: Which Internationalization Strategy is better for Indian
Pharmaceutical Enterprises?, paper presented at GLOBELICS Conference 2006, 4-7
October 2006, Trivandrum, India
4. Jaya Prakash Pradhan, (2009) Indian FDI falls in global crisis: Indian multinationals
tread cautiously, Columbia FDI Perspectives No. 11.
5. Lall, S. (1982), Developing Countries as Exporters of Technology: A First Look at the
Indian Experience. London: Macmillan, pp 31.
6. Premila Nazareth Satyanand (2009), Outward FDI from India and its policy context,
Indian multinationals, Indian School of Business and Vale Columbia Center on
Sustainable International Investment, New York.
7. PricewaterhouseCoopers, Emerging multinationals, April 2010
8. Sauvant, Karl P. and Jaya Prakash Pradhan, with Ayesha Chatterjee and Brian Harley,
eds., The Rise of Indian Multinationals: Perspectives on Indian Outward Foreign Direct
Investment, New York: Palgrave, 2010.
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9. Steven Globerman & Daniel Shapiro (2006), Outward FDI and the Economic
Performance of Emerging Markets, International Conference on the Rise of TNCs From
Emerging Markets: Threat or Opportunity?, Columbia University, New York, October
24-25.