Reliance Industries on Wednesday said it has raised a $550-million loan from a consortium of Japanese banks to part-fund its ongoing capital expenditure in the petrochemical and refining segments.
“In continuation of the fund-raising programme initiated in 2012-13, RIL has tied up Export Credit Agency (ECA) facility of up to $550 million co-financed by JBIC (Japan International Bank for Cooperation) and a group of other Japanese banks backed by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI),” the company said in a statement.
This ECA facility would be for tenure of 12 years and will be used to finance contracts for imports of goods and services signed with more than 20 Japanese suppliers, including some small and medium enterprises.
The company is undertaking its largest-ever capital expansion of $12-13 billion in refining and petchem segments, of which it has already spent 30%. The rest is likely to be utilised in 18-24 months.
RIL is executing three projects in its core businesses, which include polyester capacity expansion in petrochemicals, setting up a petcoke gasification plant at its refinery and building refinery off-gas cracker over the next 2-3 years.
RIL in its quarterly earnings press conference last week indicated that broadly all its projects were on track in terms of execution.
Under the terms of the loan, which would be RIL’s eighth such ECA facility, JBIC will provide direct financing of up to $330 million and Japanese banks, supported by a 95% NEXI insurance cover, will finance up to $220 million.
RIL’s outstanding debt as at end of fiscal 2014 stood at R89,968 crore while it had cash and cash equivalents of R88,190 crore.
The stock closed at R966.85 on Wednesday, not much of a change from the last close.
