Tata Chemicals raises $850 million to fund US acquisition

26 March 2008

Mumbai: Tata Chemicals has raised $850 million in loans to help fund its $1 billion acquisition of US soda-ash maker General Chemical Industrial Products.

The loan has been arranged by a consortium of banks comprising ABN AMRO, Bank of Nova Scotia, Calyon, HSBC, Mizuho Financial Group, Rabobank  and Standard Chartered, the source said.

The funding has a $500 million part in seven-year loan at 1.35 percentage points over LIBOR and a $350 million in six-month bridge loan, sources at banks involved in the deal said.

Tata Chemicals would announce details of the financing deal by this week after regulatory approval for the acquisition, managing director Homi Khusrokhan said.

Tata Chemicals expects to achieve financial closure of the acquisition in the next couple of days he added said.

"We will be announcing the closure of the deal in two-three days, only then I'll be able to provide details of the funding," he said.