State owned Power Grid Corporation (PGCIL) has appointed ABN-AMRO bank for raising $ 120 million, a syndicated loan backed by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Government of India.

ABN-AMRO bank has been appointed as a lead arranger of the loan. Money is likely to be raised by the end of this year and PGCIL will start withdrawing money from April 1, 2001, Corporation sources said. For the first time in India ADB would stand guarantee for a commercial loan to be raised by public sector undertaking (PSU), sources said adding that the loan would be for a period of 15 years at an average rate of interest of 8.6 per cent.

“Power ministry has cleared the proposal as well as appointment of ABN-AMRO bank as lead arranger,” sources said, adding that finance ministry's approval was likely to come soon. “The loan would be used by PGCIL for electricity transmission projects,” sources said, adding that ADB had earlier sanctioned a loan of $ 250 million for inter-state and inter regional transmission systems in India.

On the syndicated loan of $ 120 million, PGCIL would be paying a rate of interest of libor plus 80 basis point during first eight years and libor plus 20 basis point for the next seven years, sources said. According to the sources, in the project for setting up inter-state and inter-regional transmission system in India taken up by the PGCIL, ADB would be financing 51 per cent of the total project costing $ 491.5 million while the balance would be funded through commercial co-financing, domestic borrowing and PGCIL's internal resources.

The loan is from ADB’s ordinary capital resources, repayable over 20 years, including a grace period of five years and interest would be at ADB's poll based variable lending rate for us $ loans.

The project, comprising many sub-projects, would be implemented over a five-year period and would provide additional reliable power supply to consumers and allow interchange of power between electricity regions.

It would also aid in the development of a regulatory framework for operating the national grid transmission system. Bureau Report