On 27th January, 2014, NTPC Ltd. entered into two foreign currency loan agreements with the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC), the Japanese Government policy-based financial institution, for approx. USD 430 million (approx. Rs. 2,650 crore) for its Kudgi and Auraiya projects. The loan agreements were signed by Shri Kulamani Biswal, Director (Finance), NTPC and Mr. Hiroshi Watanabe, Governor, JBIC in New Delhi on January 25, 2014.
The Company signed a term loan of USD 350 million with the JBIC to finance the supplies and services from Japan as well as India for the Kudgi Super Thermal Power Project Stage-I (3×800 MW) located in the state of Karnataka. The facility consists of a CIRR based fixed interest tranche and a floating interest rate tranche, with a door to door maturity of about 15 years. The second loan signed with the JBIC is for JPY 8,021 million to finance the renovation and modernization of gas turbines at NTPC’s Auraiya gas power station. This facility is a CIRR based fixed interest rate facility with a door to door maturity of over 12 years. Kudgi Power Project is based on super critical technology which has lower carbon intensity compared to projects based on sub-critical technology. In both the loans, 60% of the facility amount is provided by JBIC and the balance by commercial banks under NEXI guarantee. The loans are provided on a stand alone basis without any sovereign guarantee reflecting the NTPC’s strong credit quality. This is the first time JBIC has directly extended a direct loan facility to NTPC. JBIC previously extended guarantee for an untied loan of USD 380 million for NTPC’s Barh Stage-I project.
