Indian companies to raise record funds

With Indian shares near historic peaks, firms look set to raise a record amount of funds in 2010 through initial public offerings (IPOs) and other stock issues, a leading brokerage forecast Tuesday.
Indian companies have raised over 500 billion rupees (11.2 billion dollars) so far this year through domestic issues, fast closing in on the 2007 record of 529 billion rupees, Indian brokerage firm Motilal Oswal said in the report.
"Given the pipeline of capital raising from public and private sectors in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2010, we expect this year's total capital raising to significantly surpass the previous high of 2007," the firm said.
The government has announced a 8.5-billion-dollar asset sale and the private sector also needs to raise money to fund infrastructure and other projects, Motilal Oswal said.