India Leads Asian Project Loans as Tata Steel Secures Record $4.4 Billion

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Tata Steel (BSE:500470) (Mumbai, India) has closed project financing for the new, 6 million-ton-per-year greenfield steel plant in Kalinganagar, Odisha. The company obtained a funding commitment from a consortium of 21 banks for $4 billion.

This is the largest project financing loan on record in India. So far in 2013, the total volume of project financing loans is $14.7 billion, which is up 13% from the same period last year.

In Asia, excluding Japan, project loan volume stood at $19.9 billion in 2013, down 30% from the same period last year. This is the lowest year-to-date level since 2007 ($11.4 billion).

Excluding Japan, State Bank of India leads Asia in syndicated bookrunner banking so far this year with a 22.5% share, followed by Bank of China with 7.6% and Standard Charter Bank (London, England) at 4.4%.

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