IIFCL’s UK subsidiary to fund infra projects

New Delhi: India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd (IIFCL) announced the setting up of its offshore subsidiary at London. The subsidiary office at London was inaugurated by the Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram.

In his keynote address, the Finance Minister observed that the Indian economy was humming with productive activities and had the potential of managing 8 per cent plus growth over the next two decades. He noted that development of infrastructure assumes a very high significance to sustain such a high level of growth.

IIFC (UK) Ltd will provide foreign currency funds to Indian companies to set up various infrastructure projects in India.

Mr S.S. Kohli, Chairman and Managing Director of IIFCL, said that the offshore arm will be supplementing the role of IIFCL in financing India’s infrastructure. The company would be borrowing from the Reserve Bank of India foreign currency up to a maximum of $5 billion in several tranches and provide foreign currency loans to meet the import requirements of Indian companies developing infrastructure. The loan would be solely for meeting capital expenditure outside India.

Till date, IIFCL, which became operational in April 2006, has sanctioned financial assistance to 78 infrastructure projects to the tune of $4.2 billion, involving a project cost of $30 billion. Of these projects, 63 have achieved financial closure. Mr Kohli said that the setting up of IIFCL and its offshore subsidiary IIFC (UK) Ltd were the fulfilment of announcements made in Budget 2005-06 and 2007-08.