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Mumbai:
Tata Steel Ltd, the world''s sixth-largest steelmaker, is planning to build a steel
plant in South Africa, reports quoting a senior official of the company said.
"Talks
are on," for securing coal and iron ore, the report quoted the unidentified
official as saying. "It could be around 5 million tonnes if they give us
coal and iron ore mines," the official added. Tata
Steel, which bought Anglo-Dutch Corus for $12.9 billion this year, said it is
setting up a $100m ferrochrome plant in South Africa. The
company will also buy a 35-per cent stake in a Mozambique coal project run by
Australia''s Riversdale Mining Ltd, for $86 million to provide coking coal for
its plants in Europe and India, the report said. Tata
Steel currently imports 1.3 million tonnes or 30 per cent of its annual coal requirement.
This is expected to rise to two million tonnes in the future, the official said.
"Our aim is to be about 50 per cent self-sufficient." Meanwhile,
Tata Steel has secured a $1 billion loan from the State Bank of India (SBI) for
completing the fund-raising for its $12.9 billion acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steelmaker
Corus. SBI has
agreed to provide up to $1 billion to Tata Steel''s special purpose vehicle, Tata
Steel UK, to refinance $7.2 billion of bridge loans taken for the biggest buyout
by an Indian company. "We
have approved a loan of $800 million to $1 billion to Tata Steel," said a
senior SBI official. A Tata Steel spokesperson confirmed that the company was
availing of the loan from the SBI. Tata
Steel had to turn to the SBI after some foreign banks backed out thanks to the
sub-prime crisis in the US and the credit squeeze that followed. This
is also the first acquisition financing of this size provided by the SBI, which
till now was involved in deals of less than $100 million (Rs 410 crore). Early
last month, Tata Steel had to agree to pay 50 basis points more on a $1-billion,
seven-year loan as the banks participating in the loan syndication bargained for
higher yield. The loan''s underwriters were ABN Amro, Citigroup and Standard Chartered.
also see : Other
reports on Tata Steel
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