Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), has signed an agreement to raise $1 billion term loan facility covered by Korea Trade Insurance Corp (K-Sure). This is K-Sure’s largest deal in India and the largest deal supported by K-Sure in the global telecom sector.

The loan will be mainly used to finance goods and services procured from Samsung Electronics and Ace Technologies Corp. This is the second round of funding for RJio backed by K-Sure and fourth for Reliance Group, RJio said in a statement.

The term loan has door-to-door tenor of 10.75 years, it added.

The financing was arranged by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. BNP Paribas, Commerzbank AG, Citibank N.A, ING Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank and Banco Santander were also part of the fund raising.

RJio will use the funding to build a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network across the country. Samsung Electronics had signed an agreement with RJio in 2012 to supply LTE network equipment, including core infrastructure such as base stations and Voice over LTE services to installation of telecom networks.

In October 2017, RJio had raised $750 million loan from Korea Exim Bank to finance of telecom equipment purchase from Samsung Electronics. Later in November, RJio announced plans to raise $1.5 billion from 26 banks to finance terms taken in 2010.

RJio, which had launched telecom operations in 2016, is now one of the top two players across 18 telecom circles of the total 22 in the country. The company has posted a 19.8 per cent rise in market share in the fourth quarter from the 15.2 per cent recorded during the previous quarter, according to statistics released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India earlier this month.

In December, Mukesh Ambani-led RJio entered into an agree to acquire the wireless assets of debt-laden Reliance Communications (RCom), controlled by his younger sibling, Anil. This was one of a series of deals between the two brothers – Mukesh and Anil – who had parted ways in 2005, carving the Reliance empire into two.

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