Essar Ports refinances Rs 405 cr loan, stock up 2%

Essar Ports has advanced 2.38% at Rs 88.10 after the company plans to refinance Rs 405 crore loans for its Hazira bulk terminal to save Rs 10 crore annually in interest cost. 

The company announced on Thursday it has tied up with India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd to refinance the loan. The move will enable the ports company to reduce its interest by two percent. The loan was obtained for construction of 30 million tonne bulk capacity bulk terminal at Hazira in Gujarat.

Essar Ports which has equity investment from Antwerp port has a total debt of about a billion dollars (about Rs 5,500 crore) and is considering additional debt saving measures for its port projects. Shailesh Sawa, director (finance) of Essar Ports said: "As part of our constant endeavour to reduce the cost of debt we have availed ourselves of the government initiated scheme of take out finance. We will undertake more such initiatives to deliver bettern return to our shareholders."

In the intraday deal, the stock opened at Rs 87.70 and made a high of Rs 88.95. Around 9,000 shares were traded in BSE and NSE.