Washington, Aug 13 (IANS): Indian corporates consider the United States, Singapore, and the United Kingdom as the top three most strategically important countries for new sources of investment over the next five years, according to a new survey.
Indian corporates ranked the US as the number one country (92 percent), closely followed by Singapore (89 percent) and the United Kingdom (79 percent), according to BNY Mellon's Global Trends in Investor Relations Survey with an India focus,
Hong Kong (76 percent) and India (72 percent) complete the top five. In 2012, India topped the table as the most strategically important source of new investment (72 percent) - a slide of five places to fifth in 2013.
"While Indian companies continue to raise money at home, there has been an acute shift in their geographical outlook towards international investment lately," observes Neil Atkinson, BNY Mellon's Asia-Pacific head of depositary receipts.
"Narendra Modi swept to power in India's general elections in May on the promise of reviving the country's economy. Accordingly, India could be poised for economic and financial reform which could make it easier for Indian corporates to access competitively priced international capital," Atkinson said.
Results from BNY Mellon's survey show that the number one investor relations goal for companies in India over the next five years is to increase international shareholder ownership (66 percent). This is significantly higher than respondents worldwide that reported the same goal (46 percent).
"OTC non-capital-raising DRs will soon be a new channel for Indian corporates following the Government's recent decision to accept the proposals made by the M.S. Sahoo Committee.
"This development is timely and could be significant to a large share of Indian companies seeking to increase their international ownership and with investor sentiment toward India buoyant. We may see more Indian companies using DRs to access global markets in 2015," forecasts Atkinson.
BNY Mellon's report is based on survey results from nearly 700 respondents across 63 countries that span the range of market cap and industry sectors, including financials, industrials, consumer, technology and healthcare, according to a media release.