India’s ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Limited (AMNS) is in talks with banks to raise an estimated $1 billion to fund capital expenditure, SteelOrbis learned from industry circles on Tuesday. At least three lenders including State Bank of India (SBI) , ICICI Bank Ltd. and Axis Bank Ltd. would be participating in the syndicated deal, with SBI accounting for almost half the loan amount which might carry a tenor longer than five years and priced against local interest rate benchmark, sources said.
AMNS had earlier held loan negotiations with a few other lenders, however they could not agree on the cost of funding, the sources said. In addition, AMNS India had announced its plans to invest an estimated $7.22 billion to scale up capacity of its steel plant at Hazira to an annual 15 million mt per year from nine million mt. The capacity increase is scheduled to be completed by 2026.