Indian borrowers mobilised $42.01 billion syndicated loans overseas in the calendar year 2007, up 46.15 per cent over $28.80 billion raised in the previous calendar year.

India topped the borrowers' chart in Asia (ex-Japan, ex-Australia), with $42.1 billion loans from 122 transactions, capturing a 24.1 per cent market share in 2007. Indian companies beat their peers in Hong Kong and Taiwan for the first time in the regional loan market.

The growth in the loan volume would have been much higher had the government not put restrictions on overseas borrowings in August 2007.

After the stupendous growth of 280 per cent in the third quarter of 2007 (July-September 2007), borrowings through syndicated loans declined by 20.3 per cent in the fourth quarter ending December 2007.

Asian borrowings hit a record this year, with $197.4 billion of loans raised from 769 issues, representing an increase of 22.5 per cent over the $161.1 billion raised in 2006. Global-syndicated lending reached $4.5 trillion in 2007 from $4 trillion in 2006, up 13.4 per cent.

The M&A activity drove the debt market as acquisition financing (including leveraged buyouts) comprised the biggest chunk in the overall activity in 2007.

The Essar group of Shashi and Ravi Ruia was the biggest overseas borrowers, mobilising $4.67 billion for Essar Global ($3.59 billion) and Essar Oil [Get Quote] ($1.08 billion).

AV Metal mobilised $3.1 billion followed by Reliance Industries [Get Quote] ($2.7 billion), OP Jindal group ($2.40 billion), Tata Steel [Get Quote] ($2.38 billion), Guru Gobindsingh Refineries ($1.95 billion), Suzlon Energy [Get Quote] ($1.87 billion) and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] ($1.8 billion).

SBI [Get Quote] Capital topped the book-runners' list, managing syndicated loans worth $10.15 billion. ABN Amro participated in syndicated deals worth $10.05 billion, while ICICI Bank managed $3.40 billion worth of syndicated loans. BNP Paribas ($4.01 billion) and State Bank of India ($3.27 billion) were the other major book-runners.