Reliance Petro to raise $1.5 bn loan

Reliance Petroleum, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), has said it had mandated bankers to arrange $1.5 billion syndicated term loan facility to finance the 580,000 barrels per day refinery and the 0.9 million tonne per annum polypropylene unit.

According to RIL, this will be India's largest-ever offshore syndicated loan financing. It comprises a $950 million 7.5-year tranche and a $550 million 10-year tranche with a blended average life of 6.6 years.

The $1.5 billion syndicated loan facility will be also the single largest limited recourse financing mandated in the Asian markets in recent years, excluding China.

This deal will also re-open the limited recourse finance market in India after almost a decade which has not seen significant cross border participation by international banks, the company said.

RIL also claimed that the fundraising represented the largest offshore syndicated loan financing ever from India and the final 10-year maturity represented the longest maturity for any corporate term debt issuance out of India.