In a bid to sustain its higher level of activities, Bank of America (BankAm) has announced an infusion of Rs 330 crore into its Indian operations.
?Our scale of operations in all spheres of activities in the country has gone up and adding capital is meant to sustain this growth,? said Vishwavir Ahuja, managing director and country executive, India, BankAm.
BankAm has recently ventured into funding of restructuring small and medium enterprises in its Indian operations.
?BankAm intends to get involved in the revival of small and medium size companies in the country. We have funded a couple of companies under this programme and will take up more companies in future,? said Ahuja.
According to Ahuja, Bank Am has around $1.5 billion exposure in funding India Inc?s outward M&A activities.
India Inc?s overseas borrowing cost has gone up by 40-60 basis points in recent times, reflecting the realistic risk-reward scenario, he said.
?We have seen a pause by the Indian corporates in overseas borrowing programme,? he commented. The Indian corporates will return to international market to raise resources in the latter part of the year.
On the interest rate scenario he said it is a challenge for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to manage high liquidity, inflation and exchange rate situation.
?Though internationally the rates signal are either reducing or status quo, India has its own set of factors. We have to wait for the forthcoming credit policy to get a clear signal on the rates. RBI has managed the situation very well in the past,? he said.
With the fresh capital infusion, the Tier I capital of the bank?s Indian branches has now increased to Rs 1,851 crore and has boosted the bank?s capital base to $ 2,029 crore. Earlier, the bank had injected Rs 767 crore into its India operations in 2005.