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Reliance Industries Ltd and its telecom arm Jio Infocomm have raised a total of USD 5 billion in back-to-back foreign currency loans, the largest syndicated loan in India's corporate history, sources said. Reliance last week raised USD 3 billion from 55 banks and Reliance Jio Infocomm secured additional credit of USD 2 billion from 18 banks, sources aware of the development said. The USD 3 billion financing closed on March 31 and the add-on facility of USD 2 billion was secured on Tuesday, they said. Reliance will mainly deploy the funds raised towards its capital expenditure, while Jio would put the money to finance its nationwide 5G network rollout. The USD 2 billion add-on will be split equally between Reliance and Jio and is likely to be wrapped up by the end of April, they said. The primary syndication of USD 3 billion involved around 55 lenders, including nearly two dozen Taiwanese banks as well as global giants such as Bank of America, HSBC, MUFG, Citi, SMBC, Mizuho, and Cr
NBFC Moneyboxx Finance on Friday said it has secured a Rs 20 crore term loan from Maanaveeya Development & Finance, and the funds will be used for onward lending to micro entrepreneurs. Maanaveeya is an Indian subsidiary of Oikocredit. Moneyboxx is supported by 24 lenders, including SBI, IDFC First Bank, DCB Bank, AU SFB, and has raised cumulative debt of close to Rs 400 crore. With planned equity raise and continuous support from lenders and co-lending partnerships, the company is targeting asset under management (AUM) of Rs 1,000 crore by 2023-24 from current AUM of Rs 290 crore as of February 2023, it said in a release. "The loan from Maanaveeya will help boost our efforts in fostering financial inclusion by addressing the unmet and growing need for credit in the Rs 1-10 lakh small business loan segment," said Deepak Aggarwal, Co-Founder, Moneyboxx. The BSE-listed NBFC focuses on impact financing by providing business loans to micro entrepreneurs in Tier-III cities and below. .
Pakistan's all-weather ally China has approved a loan of USD 700 million to the cash-strapped country, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced on Wednesday. The announcement by Dar on the loan by the Board of China Development Bank came a day after Pakistan's National Assembly unanimously passed a money bill aimed at raising tax revenues to fulfil the demands set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for seeking a USD 1.1 billion loan facility to avoid an economic meltdown. "Formalities have been completed and the Board of China Development Bank has approved the facility of USD 700 million for Pakistan. This amount is expected to be received this week by the State Bank of Pakistan which will shore up its forex reserves!" Dar tweeted. Pakistan has a chronic balance of payments problem which was exacerbated in the last year, with the country's forex reserves declining to critical levels. As of February 10, the central bank had only USD 3.2 billion in reserves, enough to cover barely
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has repaid Rs 1,500 crore loan and will repay another Rs 1,000 crore in commercial papers due in March. The Adani Group firm paid Rs 1,000 crore to SBI Mutual Fund and Rs 500 crore to Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund on commercial papers that matured on Monday, as scheduled. "This part prepayment is from the existing cash balance and funds generated from the business operations," a company spokesperson said. "This underscores the confidence which the market has placed on the prudent capital and liquidity management plan for the group." An SBI MF spokesperson said it has no further exposure. "SBI MF had an exposure of around Rs 1,000 crore to Adani Group, which has been repaid on maturity. We have no further exposure to the Adani Group," the spokesperson said.
The government on Wednesday said it has approved Rs 28.11 crore to extend the interest-free loan to tobacco farmers of Andhra Pradesh. This measure will help the FCV (Flue Cured Virginia) tobacco farmers overcome the damage caused by Mandous Cyclonic rains, the commerce ministry said in a statement. The interest-free loan to the eligible farmers will be administered by the Tobacco Board, it added. "Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, has accorded approval for Rs 28.11 crore to extend a special interest-free loan @ of Rs 10,000 to each member of Tobacco Board's Growers' Welfare Schemes under Southern Regions (Southern Light Soil and Southern Black Soil) of Andhra Pradesh from the Tobacco Growers' Welfare Fund, which will directly benefit 28,112 farmers," it said. FCV tobacco is a major commercial crop grown in 10 districts of Andhra Pradesh, with an annual production of 121 million kg (2021-22) grown in an area of 66,000 hectares. It is the major exportable tobacco vari