Indian corporates went on a dollar raising spree worth $1.5 billion (Rs 6,540 crore) on Thursday to fund their various expansion plans and retire old high cost loans.While Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) raised $670 million, Reliance raised $340 million and housing finance firm HDFC raised $500 million.IOC, India’s largest oil firm, said it has signed agreements to raise $670 million as foreign currency loan to meet its fund requirement including import of crude oil.Of this, $200 million would be utilised to refinance existing syndicated term loans and the balance $470 million for crude oil import requirements, IOC said in a release here.IOC Director (Finance) S.V. Narasimhan recently signed a loan agreement at Hong Kong for $200 million syndicated term loan facility.The proceeds of this loan would be utilised by IOC to prepay lenders of existing syndicated term loans, which is expected to effect substantial savings.The state-owned oil major has also signed separate loan agreements for raising short-term loans for financing oil imports with ICICI Bank, Singapore ($250 million), Mizuho Corporate Bank, Singapore ($50 million), the Bank of Tokyo and Mitsubishi Ltd, Singapore ($50 million) and the Bank of America, Taipei ($120 million).Earlier in the year, IOC had raised Rs 1,000 crore from the domestic bond market through issue of secured redeemable non-convertible bonds for meeting long-term working capital requirements. On the other hand, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) said its zero coupon foreign currency convertible bond (FCCB) offering of $500 million has been oversubscribed two times.The FCCBs will have a five-year tenure and are convertible into equity shares at any time after August 24, 2006 at a price of Rs 1,399 per share, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries said it has mandated a group of leading international banks for a three year $348 million syndicated term loan facility.The facility intends to refinance two existing higher cost loans thereby achieving significant cost savings for the company, RIL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.A few other banks are still processing further approvals and are likely to join the lead arrangers later this week. The deal has been launched into general syndication on August 22, 2005, it said.‘‘RIL has enjoyed strong support on the international banking community over the years and this transaction underlines the confidence of RIL’s relationship banks in the company. RIL’s predominant position in the country should ensure that this deal, like in the past, will set a benchmark for further offerings from the company and other Indian corporates,’’ said Alok Agarwal, President (finance), Reliance Industries.
