FIs eye equity in Petronet LNG
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Jan 21: Asian Development Bank (ADB), ICICI and State Bank of India (SBI) are among the six banks and financial institutions (FIs) who have evinced interest in picking equity in Petronet LNG Ltd’s Rs 2,500 crore LNG import terminal at Dahej in Gujarat.

“Six banks and FIs have shown keen interest in picking up equity in five million tonnes Dahej terminal project which is likely to achieve Financial closure by last quarter of 2001,” PLL managing director and CEO Suresh Mathur told PTI here.Besides ADB, the five bankers who have shown interest inequity include ICICI, SBI, Infrastructrue Development Finance Company (IDFC), GIIC of Singapore and AIG, he said. Finances for the five million tonnes capacity terminal, to be constructed on 70:30 debt-equity ratio (Rs. 1750 crore debt and Rs. 750 crore equity), would be tied by fourth quarter of 2001 calender year, Mathur said.

While the four promoter oil companies - Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) - between them share 50 per cent of PLL’s equity, the bankers would be offered 25 per cent stake.

“We plan to bring out Project Inforamtion Memorandum (PIM) by the end of April which would contain all information needed by banks and Financial institutions to see the project for long-term financing,” he said, adding PLL had recently tied-up short-term bridge loan of Rs 1,400 crore from seven banks beginning construction on the project.

PLL had recently tied-up a short-term bridge loan of Rs 400 crore from seven banks and FIs including IDFC, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Allahabad Bank, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir Bank and Indian Overseas Bank, Mathur said.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.