The country's largest truck maker Tata Motors, which had raised Rs 4,200 crore (Rs 42 billion) last week through the issue of secured non-convertible debentures, has completed the process of raising around Rs 4,800 crore ($1 billion) more through the external commercial borrowing route.
"The documents have been signed with the bankers in Mumbai, Hong Kong and Dubai and the process has been completed," said a banker familiar with the development.
Announcing that the company had completed its fund raising for repayment of the bridge loan taken to acquire British marquee car brands Jaguar and Land Rover, Tata Motors said this was achieved by extending the final maturity of $1 billion by 18 months up to December 31, 2010.
Over 20 lenders, including two new banks, participated in this agreement, leading to an oversubscription of 47 per cent of the extended loan, the company said on Wednesday.
Last June, the auto maker availed of a $3-billion (around Rs 14,319 crore or Rs 143.19 billion at Wednesday's exchange rate) bridge loan to finance its JLR acquisition from the Ford Motor Company. The amount is due for payment on June 1.
In January, it said that it had repaid $1.11 billion from the proceeds of the rights issue and a stake sale in Tata Steel and Tata Teleservices to other group companies.
The remaining $1.89 billion (about Rs 9,017 crore) is due for repayment on June 1. The company raised Rs 4,200 crore (Rs 42 billion) last week through NCDs and it was in the process of raising the remaining amount of about Rs 4,800 crore (Rs 48 billion).
Citigroup and JP Morgan were the lead managers to the $3-billion loan, which was raised with the help of other banks too, such as SBI, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas and Tokyo Mitsubishi UFH. Citigroup is also the lead manager of this issue.
