US Exim Bank to loan $5 bn to R-Power

The Export-Import Bank of the US would provide $5 billion (Rs 22,200 crore) to Reliance Power for the purchases of US goods and services over the next three years for various projects of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

These include financing 900 Mw of renewable power generating technology (solar and wind) and up to 8,000 Mw of gas-fired electric generating technology. The agreement was signed by Anil Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Power, and Fred Hochberg, Chairman and President, US Ex-Im Bank.

The agreement would enable Reliance Power and its affiliates to access Ex-Im Bank’s long-term dollar loans at a substantially reduced processing time.

Since the bank’s exposure to India has been primarily limited to the public sector, this agreement makes an important change, in the direction of providing long-term finance to India’s private sector.

Earlier in the year, the bank’s board had accorded its final approval of project finance facilities aggregating $917 million for R-Power’s 3,960-Mw Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project, to support purchase of coal mining equipment from US suppliers.