Chart Beat: Unlisted Indian cos carry higher debt burden

Indian companies in the unlisted space are carrying a higher debt burden than their listed counterparts. An analysis by Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd showed that while debt of the entire corporate sector (listed plus unlisted) has grown at a similar pace in the pre- and post-Covid period, debt of listed companies has grown at a much slower pace, compared to that of the unlisted sector. In fact, the debt of the latter has grown faster than seen in the pre-covid period. For this analysis, Motilal Oswal has estimated the outstanding debt of the listed corporates, after which it has derived leverage of the unlisted companies using the residual approach. The study shows that listed companies account for only about a quarter of India’s corporate debt, implying that the unlisted sector is almost three times the listed universe in terms of debt.