JSW Steel raises $900-million loan from eight foreign banks
JSW Steel, India's largest manufacturer of the alloy, has raised $900 million from a consortium of eight foreign banks to refinance debt maturing this month and pre-pay some high-cost borrowings.
The loan was priced 180 basis points above the international secured overnight financing rate (SOFR) earlier this month, multiple people aware of the details said. One basis point is a hundredth of a percentage point.
Eight banks — Singapore's DBS Bank, France's BNP Paribas, UK-based HSBC and Standard Chartered, UAE's Mashreq Bank and First Abu Dhabi Bank, Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) and Taiwan's CTBC Bank — are the joint underwriters for the loan.
«The company has some repayments due including $500 million for a dollar bond that matures this month. The money raised will be used to repay this and other foreign currency borrowings with the residual used for capital expenditure,» said a person aware of the transaction. JSW Steel did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The company did not reply to an email seeking comment. Spokespersons for HSBC, Standard Chartered and BNP Paribas declined to comment while DBS, and SMBC did not reply to emails seeking comment. Other banks could not be immediately reached.
JSW raised $500 million through a five-year bond in April 2019 at 5.95% which matures this month. The proceeds of the loan will help the company repay that bond. The three-month SOFR is currently trading at around 5.35%, and at 180 basis points above the SOFR, JSW will pay around 7.15% for the loan.
