CDB provides $750 million to Reliance Communications (Facility I) for unspecified purposes (Linked to Project ID #54348, #54349, #54350)

On June 4, 2008, Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) obtained a $750 million loan (Facility I) from China Development Bank (CDB) to fund its nationwide GSM rollout efforts. This loan carried a 10-year maturity and an interest rate of LIBOR plus a 1.8% margin. It was secured by (i.e. collateralized against) (1) a first pari passu charge over the present and future moveable plant and machinery and capital work in progress of, and all rights, title, interest, benefits, claims and demands under and in respect of all insurance contracts entered into in relation to these assets by Reliance Communications Limited, Reliance Communications Infrastructure Limited, Reliance Infratel Limited and Reliance Telecom Limited; (2) assignment of 20 unified access service licenses, a national long-distance license and an international long-distance license of Reliance Communications Limited; and (3) pledge of: (i) 66,980,095 equity shares of Reliance Telecom Limited held by Reliance Communications Limited; (ii) 18,019,900 equity shares of Reliance Telecom Limited held by Reliance Infocomm Infrastructure Limited; and (iii) 9,379,999,994 equity shares of Reliance Communications Infrastructure Limited held by Reliance Communications Limited. The proceeds of this loan were reportedly used to finance RCOM's GSM equipment order placed with Huawei. As of December 31, 2014, the (principal) amount outstanding under this loan was $518 million. In February 2019, Reliance Communications filed for bankruptcy as it was unable to sell assets to repay its debts.

Additional details

1. AidData has estimated the all-in interest rate in the following manner: 3.104% (6-month average LIBOR in June 2008) + 1.80% (given margin) = 4.904%. 2. This project is linked to three other CDB loans to Reliance: $300 million USD in 2011 (Facility II) (#54348), $1.33 billion in in 2011 (Facility III) (#54349), and $300 million USD in 2011 (Facility IV) (#54350).

Number of official sources

1

Number of total sources

10