New Delhi, Jun 6 (PTI) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to India declined to USD 40 billion in 2017 from USD 44 billion in the previous year, said UNCTAD'S World Investment Report 2018.

"FDI inflows to South Asia contracted by 4 per cent to USD 52 billion, owing to a drop in inflows to India" the report said today.

As per the UNCTAD, the foreign inflows to India decreased from USD 44 billion in 2016 to USD 40 billion in 2017.

Cross-border M&A sales, however, rose from USD 8 billion to USD 23 billion driven by a few large deals in extractive and technology related industries.

The report said the Petrol Complex Pte Ltd (Singapore), owned by Rosneftegaz (Russian Federation) acquired a 49 per cent stake of Essar Oil Ltd, the second largest privately owned Indian oil company, for USD 13 billion.

An investor group including eBay (United States), Microsoft Corporation (United States) and Tencent Holdings (China) acquired a stake in Flipkart Internet for USD 1.4 billion, and Soft Bank (Japan) acquired a 20 per cent stake in One97 Communications also for USD 1.4 billion, it added.

According to the report, outflows from India, the main source of FDI in South Asia, more than doubled to USD 11 billion.

India's state-owned oil and gas company ONGC has been actively investing in foreign assets in the recent years.

After acquiring a 26 per cent stake in Vankorneft (Russian Federation) in 2016, it bought a 15 per cent stake in an offshore field in Namibia from Tullow Oil (founded in Ireland and headquartered in the United Kingdom) in 2017.

By the end of 2017, ONGC had 39 projects in 18 countries, producing 2,85,000 barrels of oil and oil-equivalent gas per day.

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