What is ECB (External Commercial Borrowing?)

External commercial borrowing (ECB) is a type of loan availed by Indian companies in which they raise funds outside of India in foreign currency. In actual, ECB is a type of commercial loan for Indian corporate which they can avail from foreign entities through means such as loans from foreign banks or FIs, bonds, or securitized instruments.

Indian corporates are permitted to use ECB either for fresh investments or capacity expansion. The funding raised can’t be used for the following purpose.

• Real estate activities
• Investment in capital market
• Equity investment.
• Working capital purposes except for foreign equity holder
• General corporate purposes except for foreign equity holders.
• Repayment of Rupee loans except for foreign equity holder
• On-lending to entities for the above activities.

ECB Forex

Though ECB is an easy route to raise funds it comes with its own limitations and risks, the most important being Fx risk for ECB. If not hedged properly it may take away the benefit of raising abroad instead of domestically. 

ECB Routes

Indian corporates can avail ECB through two routes as permitted by RBI guidelines, automatic route or approval route

Automatic Route: For the automatic route, the cases are examined by the Authorised Dealer Category-I (AD Category-I) banks.

Approval Route: Under the approval route, the prospective borrowers are required to send their requests to the Reserve Bank through their Authorised Dealer (AD) Banks for examination.

Pros of ECB (External Commercial Borrowing)

ECBs are economical, i.e. the cost of borrowing through ECB is cheaper than resources available domestically, by taking the advantage of lower interest rates in Eurozone, United States, or other international financial markets
ECBs are a good way if the amount of funding needed is large as the availability of bigger market players in international markets can provide a larger sum of funding
Borrowing from international markets may open more avenues for corporate to expand their businesses at a global level
Being a loan, ECB doesn’t provide debtors with the right to control the company as it doesn’t provide voting rights as in the case of equity.
Lower cost of funding adds to the overall profitability of the company and also contributes to the economic growth of the country.
The availability of hedge instruments like futures and swaps to manage FX risk arising because of borrowing in foreign currency adds to the benefits of raising funds through the ECB.

Cons of ECB (External Commercial Borrowing)

Raising funds through ECB provides capital in foreign currency and hence the repayment of interest and principal is done in foreign currency, therefore forex risk arises, it not managed properly the Fx risk may cause heavy losses to corporate
The availability of easy funds through ECB may tempt corporates to take large debts which will reflect on the balance sheet and hence may adversely influence financial ratios.
Higher debt on the balance sheets may lead to a downgrading of credit rating by credit rating agencies which will increase the cost of borrowing, and share prices of the company may plunge because of high debt.
RBI guidelines restrict the end-use of funds raised through ECB, for example, ECB can’t be used for working capital needs.