Ssi Forecloses Rs 70 Crore Loans In Bid To Nix Debt

SSI Ltd, the Chennai-based IT (Information Technology) education and solutions provider, today announced that it has foreclosed Rs 70.3 crore of secured loans taken from various financial institutions as part of the move to make it a debt-free company.

The company, in a release, said that the Rs 70.3 crore secured loans includes Rs 45 crore taken from IDBI in March and Rs 19.8 crore out of a loan of Rs 24 taken from IDBI between November 1999 and March 2001. Rest includes Rs 5.5 crore out of Rs 7.38 crore loan taken from ICICI.

Though there are no foreclosure charges for the Rs 45 crore loan, the company has paid Rs 20.24 lakh for foreclosing ICICI loans.

The company is currently negotiating with IBDI for waiving Rs 43.25 lakh of foreclosure charges on the Rs 19.8 crore loan, it said.

SSI said earlier that it had taken the Rs 45 crore loan from IDBI for constructing its development centre in Chennai and said that there was an interest arbitrage of 1.75 per cent from availing the loan instead of disrupting its investments.

SSI, as of March 31, 2001, had a cash reserves component of Rs 247 crore, which included Rs 80 crore invested in mutual funds giving an average yield of 14 per cent.

According to a company spokesperson, the company waited until the end of April 2001 for double indexation benefits arising out of mutual fund investments and pre-tax benefits.

He claimed that currently there was no institutional loans in the balance sheet and added that the company still has a cash component of Rs 172 crore even after foreclosing the secured loans.

R Rangarajan, chief financial officer, SSI Ltd., in a release, said: "Our stated intent was to repay the loan once the interest rate differential between the returns and the loan interest disappears".

Meanwhile, the company today announced the opening of 100 centres in north India with the launch of its Dilshad Garden, New Delhi. North India currently contributes 18 per cent of SSI Education revenues.