Infotel Broadband Services, a telecoms unit of Reliance Industries, is considering borrowing an extra US$500m from an earlier planned US$1bn loan, according to Dow Jones citing people familiar with the matter.
Infotel, which secured a pan-India wireless…
Infotel Broadband Services, a telecoms unit of Reliance Industries, is considering borrowing an extra US$500m from an earlier planned US$1bn loan, according to Dow Jones citing people familiar with the matter.
Infotel, which secured a pan-India wireless broadband licence in July before being acquired by Reliance, is looking to launch services soon and will face competition from major telcos including Bharti Airtel and US-based Qualcomm.
The US$500m loan will have a maturity of five years and will pay an interest rate of 225bp over Libor, Dow Jones wrote.
For the initial US$1bn loan, the money would have been raised in two tranches: a five-year loan and a six-year loan and would have paid more than 200bp over Libor, according to reports at the time. Dow Jones explains that the first tranche had the option to raise additional funds, which is now being exercised
Infotel had reportedly given a working mandate to 13 banks for the US$1bn loan: ANZ, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, HSBC, ING Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, Mizuho, RBS, Standard Chartered and SMC.
Seventeen banks are now expected to take part in the new fundraising process, the sources were quoted saying. The company reportedly said that part of the proceeds will be used to refinance an existing dollar-denominated loan, while the rest will be for the company’s expansion plans.
