ICICI, SBI pitch in $600 mn for Corus deal

Deal largest exposure by Indian banks to outbound M&As.

In one of the largest exposures by Indian banks to an outbound M&A, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India (SBI) are together lending close to $600 million to the Tatas to finance the acquisition of Corus Steel, which they won in a closely fought battle with Brazil's CSN on Wednesday.

Sources close to the development said ICICI, India's second-largest bank, would lend $375-400 million and SBI, India's largest bank, $200 million.

Confirming that the bank was participating in the deal, ICICI Bank Executive Director Chanda Kochhar did not disclose the exact amount the bank would lend but clarified that the terms would be more or less the same as of foreign banks.

"We have the capacity to syndicate our exposure across the world," Kochhar said.

ICICI Bank financed half of the $8.5 billion spent by India Inc on outbound M&As last year and was looking at a 100 per cent jump this year, Kochhar added.

The Tatas will be raising $8 billion in debt for the Corus takeover, of which Standard Chartered alone is contributing close to $1 billion.

The bill for the remaining $4.1 billion will be footed by Tata Steel and Tata Sons, the group holding company that has $50 billion of equity investments.