Reliance Industries wants $1 bn loan: report

Mumbai: Indian energy conglomerate Reliance Industries is seeking a $1 billion five-year loan for capital expenditure, Thomson Reuters publication Basis Point reported on Friday, citing sources with knowledge of the situation.

Banks are engaged in a competitive bidding process and will submit proposed term sheets and commitments by 30 May, it said.

Reliance last week signed a $2 billion, 13-year term loan from nine banks and covered by German credit insurer Euler Hermes Deutschland, for financing goods and services from German suppliers.

Reliance, which holds cash balances of $13.8 billion as at end-March and has outstanding loans of around $15.8 billion, has seen its growth outlook marred by falling gas output from the KG gas fields off India’s east coast.

Its capital expenditure plans include $8 billion to expand its refining and petrochemical capacity and $4 billion to build a petcoke gasification project, Basis Point reported, citing a recent note by Moody’s.

Reliance is rated BBB by Standard & Poor’s, Baa2 by Moody’s and BBB- by Fitch, it said.