India’s RIL to raise over $1 bn through export credit

(Business Standard, Mumbai, 20 February 2014) India's Reliance Industries (RIL) is in talks with four or five export credit agencies (ECA) to raise over $1 billion (Rs 6,220 crore) in the next four months, which will give it the largest number of ECA relationships globally. This is a part of the company’s plan to raise $13 billion debt to fund expansion of its petrochemical production capacity and gasification project for its refining facilities to improve margins... In the past two years the company has already tied up over $10 billion of foreign currency financing for this purpose. While about half of this is ECA backed financing backed by six ECAs, rest is from syndicated loans and foreign currency bonds. After tying up all its ECA facilities with another 4-5 ECA’s for an additional amount of $1 billion, RIL will have the largest number of ECA relationships globally. This would appear to mark an interesting trend whereby large multinational enteprises from emerging market countries secure ECA finance via their suppliers in industrialised countries.

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