Hindalco raises first tranche of term loan

Hindalco Industries has begun drawing down of funds from the 10-year secured rupee term loan facility of Rs 4,950 crore it has tied up. It has availed of the first tranche of Rs 495 crore at an interest rate of 7.07 per cent.

The funding, tied up for its expansion projects, has been priced at a spread of 65 basis points over the 5-year sovereign paper. The facility is to be drawn over a period of two years.

Hindalco's brownfield expansion in copper business to double its capacity from 250,000 TPA to 500,000 TPA is on schedule.

The commissioning trials at the new plant have already begun and commercial production is likely to commence soon. On completion, Birla Copper will become the world's largest custom smelter at a single location. It will catapult Hindalco into the league of the top 10 copper producers in the world.

Hindalco's alumina capacity at Muri is being raised from 110,000 TPA to 500,000 TPA. The project work is already in progress. The Company has also begun evaluation work for expanding the Belgaum refinery from 350,000 TPA to 650,000 TPA and that of high value special alumina capacity at Belgaum to 167,000 TPA from 91,000.

Concurrent to the alumina expansion, Hindalco is also augmenting it's smelter and captive power generation capacity at Hirakud. Metal capacity is being enhanced from 65,000 TPA to 146,000 TPA. Power generation capacity is to increase to 317.5 mw, of which 100 mw will be commissioned in the first quarter of this year.