Tata Steel signs two Export Credit Agency Covered Borrowings

Jamshedpur, Mar 14: Tata Steel has signed two external commercial borrowing agreements aggregating to Euro 61.42 Million (USD 73.36 Million) at Frankfurt on March 13.

The funding would be utilized to finance the import component of Blast Furnace H and Sinter Plant 4 as part of the ongoing expansion project in Jamshedpur Blast Furnace H, which will produce 2.5 million tones per annum of hot metal, according to the company's spokesperson.

Paul Wurth Italia, Outokompu Technology GmbH, Germany and Larsen&Toubro has been engaged to commission the projects.

The ECA covered facilities were signed with Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main as Original Lender.

These facilities are insured by SACE S.p.A. (Servizi Assicurativi per il Commercio Estero) of Italy and Euler HERMES Kreditversicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft of Germany.

The loans have a repayment period of 10 years and an availability period of approximately three and two years respectively.

The coupon on the loans will be Euribor plus 12 basis points.

In the Financial Year 2005-06, Tata Steel has completed USD 971 Million of External Commercial Borrowings comprising of an IFC (& IFC Syndicated) Loan of USD 400 Million, a Syndicated Loan of USD 500 Million and the above ECA insured financing.

UNI