State-owned REC said on Friday that it has successfully raised $1.18 billion from a consortium of seven banks as the Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners (MLABs), making it the single largest syndicated loan raised in the international bank loan market by an Indian NBFC. The deal, benchmarked to USD LIBOR, was anchored by seven Indian and International banks — Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, DBS, MUFG and SMBC. The deal will be launched in the Asian loan syndication market shortly to capture interest from the wider investor community, the power sector NBFC said in a statement. The proceeds from this facility would be utilised to fund infrastructure power sector projects as permitted under the ECB (external commercial borrowing) guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India.
Commenting on the successful closure of the term loan, REC CMD Sanjay Malhotra said, “This ECB represents REC’s efforts in diversifying its sources of borrowings at competitive pricing, while remaining attractive to the Indian and International lenders. We are pleased with the overwhelming response of bBanks to this ECB, which is the largest ever offshore term loan facility for any Indian NBFC.”
MoU with Germany’s KfW Development Bank
Last month, the Navratna NBFC entered into an agreement with Germany’s KfW Development Bank for availing an official development assistance (ODA) term loan of $169.5 million (around ₹1,275 crore under the Indo-German Bilateral Partnership in accordance with the approval granted by the Finance Ministry. The proceeds of ODA loan will be deployed for part financing of innovative solar PV technology based generation projects in India at competitive interest rates. It is the fifth credit line signed between REC and KfW for financing of power sector projects and third credit line for financing of renewable energy (RE) projects. REC provides financial assistance to state electricity boards, state governments, central/state power utilities, independent power producers, rural electric cooperatives and private sector utilities. Its business activities involve financing projects in the complete power sector value chain.