Air India's $550 million Exim Bank loan to finance eight Boeing aircraft
22 Sep 2008
Air India's $548.6 million loan arrangement from the US Exim Bank will help partly finance the purchase of three Boeing 777 and five Boeing 737-800 aircraft, according to a Dow Jones report.
The report says the deal will be financed by the Standard Chartered Bank with a guarantee from the US Exim Bank, which is being furnished on the strength of a guarantee from the Government of India.
The Exim Bank guarantee will help finance 85 per cent of the total cost of the eight aircraft and the remaining 15 per cent will be financed through a $62.7 million term loan from IDBI Bank. (See: Air India gets $548.6 million loan from US-based Ex-Im Bank for purchase of Boeing planes)
Air India is the brand name adopted by the state-run National Aviation Company of India Ltd, a holding company formed after the merger of the earlier Air India and Indian Airlines in August 2007.
The current re-finance is related to aircraft orders placed in 2005 for 111 aircraft - 68 Boeing and 43 Airbus.
NACIL has so far raised over $3 billion to buy 38 planes.
The order is worth about $15 billion at list prices and is expected to be fulfilled by 2012.
