The Hindu Business Line : IOC to raise $670 m loan to refinance debt, import crude

INDIAN Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) said on Thursday that it had recently signed agreements to raise $670 million as foreign currency loan. Of this, $200 million would be used to refinance existing syndicated term loans and the rest for crude oil imports, the company said.

Mr S.V. Narasimhan, Director (Finance), IOC, recently signed an agreement in Hong Kong for a $200-million syndicated term-loan facility, arranged by Citigroup, Calyon Bank, HSBC, ING Vysya and Standard Chartered Bank at competitive interest rates, the company said in a statement.

The loan would be used to prepay existing syndicated term loans, the release said. This refinancing is expected to effect substantial savings. The company also said that separate loan agreements to raise short-term loans for oil imports were signed with ICICI Bank, Singapore ($250 million), Mizuho Corporate Bank, Singapore ($50 million), Bank of Tokyo and Mitsubishi Ltd, Singapore ($50 million) and Bank of America, Taipei ($120 million) during a recent visit to Singapore by Mr P.K. Goyal, IOC Executive Director (Corporate Finance).

It may be recalled that IOC raised Rs 1,000 crore earlier this year from the domestic bond market through the issue of secured redeemable non-convertible bonds to meet long-term working capital requirements. For 2005-06, IOC estimated imports of over 40 million tonnes crude oil.

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