Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), the telecom JV between Russian operator Sistema and Indian conglomerate Shyam Group, has announced it raised a Rs12.8bn (US$248m) loan through non-convertible debentures.
Deutsche Bank was the lead banker for this…
Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), the telecom JV between Russian operator Sistema and Indian conglomerate Shyam Group, has announced it raised a Rs12.8bn (US$248m) loan through non-convertible debentures.
Deutsche Bank was the lead banker for this eight-year facility.
In a statement, Sergey Savchenko, SSTL’s CFO, said: “It was quite challenging to raise such significant funds with such long tenor under current uncertain regulatory environment in India, but business has to continue and grow.
“This is the next step after raising Rs9.2bn [US$200m] loan from Barclays Bank and ICICI Bank in September last year and we currently have several other facilities in the pipeline. We are planning to utilise the proceeds to further scale up our telecom operations and repayment of maturing of maturing loan.”
SSTL, which operates under the MTS brand, has been looking to launch an IPO in India for several months now.
But CEO Vsevolod Rozanov was previously quoted saying that he was waiting for the outcome of the ongoing investigations into the 2G scam as well as the launch of the new telecom policy before proceeding with the listing of the JV.
