CNBC's Inside India newsletter: India Inc might not even need a Fed rate cut — but it wants one
This report is from this week's CNBC's "Inside India" newsletter which brings you timely, insightful news and market commentary on the emerging powerhouse and the big businesses behind its meteoric rise. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
Emerging markets have been on tenterhooks for the better part of this year as the Federal Reserve has been dangling the prospect of an interest rate cut.
Historically, as U.S. interest rates fall, the allure of the mighty dollar fades to the benefit of other currencies.
Yet, any hope of such relief was dashed last week after forecasts for the first rate cut were pushed back to September, with a decent chance of a further delay to December.
India Inc might not care this time.
"All of this increase in interest rates has, in fact, not actually impacted us at all on a business standpoint," Sumant Sinha, chief executive of ReNew, India's largest clean energy producer and a Nasdaq-listed firm, told CNBC's Inside India.
Despite the Reserve Bank of India hiking rates alongside its global peers, Indian companies have continued to grow like never before. ReNew, for instance, reported positive sales momentum in its latest full-year results. Strikingly, it also became profitable as a public company for the first time.
ReNew appears to be straddling both U.S. and Indian markets cleverly. The $2.3 billion firm operates entirely out of India, yet its largest shareholders are U.S. and Canadian institutions. It raises U.S. dollar-denominated debt, but it's careful to hedge against any depreciation in the rupee.
Being savvy has paid off, and lenders have taken notice. Societe Generale, the French bank, recently agreed to lend it up to $1 billion in the current market environment over the next three