IIFCL arm to provide $500-mn loan to sasan project

New Delhi: IIFCL (UK), a subsidiary of India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL), will extend a $500-million loan to Sasan ultra mega power project.

The 4,000-Mw power project, being developed by Reliance Power, a part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is likely to achieve financial closure within the next few weeks.

The loan was one of the nine projects worth $900 million sanctioned by the overseas arm of IIFCL, said a senior official of IIFCL (UK). The Mumbai Metro project will get $12 million.

IIFCL (UK) Ltd was incorporated in London in April last year with an initial capital of $20 million. The Reserve Bank of India will lend $5 billion from the country’s foreign exchange reserves to the company, which will further lend to infrastructure companies for their capital expenditure outside India.

The first tranche of $250 million from the RBI was likely to come in February, said the official. The RBI will subscribe to the bonds issued by IIFCL.

Meanwhile, IIFCL, set up to finance infrastructure projects, has received 180 proposals so far and has sanctioned 88 projects which have an approved loan amount of Rs 18,000 crore.