Reliance Jio to raise $750 mn from Korean company

Reliance Industries on Wednesday said its broadband arm has signed up for a $750-million loan, backed by Korea Trade Insurance Corp, to primarily finance the procurements for its infrastructure roll-out from Samsung Electronics and Ace Technologies Corp.

In a statement, the company said the facility for Reliance Jio was the second round of financing from the Korean giant and the third overall for the group.

It also marks the largest such deal for the Korean company in India.

"It has a door-to-door tenor of 12 years, including a two-year availability period and a 10-year repayment period thereafter," said the statement, adding it was being funded by nine top bankers of Reliance.

These include The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Banco Santander, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, ING Bank and DZ Bank.

Reliance Jio Infocomm is setting up a pan-India telecom network for 4th generation Net services, communication services and other digital services in areas like education, healthcare, security, financial services, government-citizen interfaces and entertainment.

In under a year, the number of professionals on its toll has risen from 700 to 10,000 now.