Bharti raises $354 mn in funds from overseas

“The company has tied up international funding of $354 million for its all-India mobile operations at very attractive costs. These funds will be deployed in further expanding the networks for company’s mobile services and for new circles roll-out,” the company said in the statement.

ABN Amro bank was the lead arranger for these facilities. The company said adding the funds from EKN would be used for paying Ericsson while the $100 million from FinnFund shall be paid to Nokia for supply of capital equipment.

Claiming this to be one of the largest international fundings in the telecom sector, Bharti said the funds have been tied up at a cost of about 4.4 per cent as on date with an average tenure of over five years and maximum up to 10 years.

“The funding of $354 million has been arranged at an approximate spread of 35 basis points over LIBOR,” it said.