Unitech Wireless gets Rs.5000 Cr loan from SBI

BANGALORE: Telecommunication service provider Unitech Wireless, 49 per cent owned by Norway's Telenor, today announced that it has secured Rs. 5000 crore loan from State Bank of India.

The facility, which includes bank guarantees and letter of credit, would help the company to finance its operations roll-out in India. The loan has been syndicated by SBI Capital Markets Ltd, said a press release.

This is the first loan secured by Unitech Wireless, after its partnership with the Telenor Group that injects Rs. 6120 crore as equity to take up to 67.25 per cent equity in the project.

The company had earlier secured a loan from a consortium of banks comprising Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India and Vijaya Bank.

“Unitech Wireless is in the midst of taking up an aggressive ramp-up to launch its telecom services in India by the end of this year. The company has already placed significant orders on partners and vendors for services and equipment in order to meet the ambitious targets we have set for launch,” said Rajiv Bawa, chief corporate affairs officer, Unitech Wireless.

In order to reduce time-to-market by ensuring a swift and cost efficient rollout of its services, Unitech Wireless would outsource infrastructure and back-end services to partner organizations with established core competencies, the release added.

As a part of this strategy, the company has already entered into cooperation with companies such as Wireless-TT Info Service Limited, Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Limited, Alcatel-Lucent, Wipro, Huawei Technologies India, Ericsson and Telcordia for infrastructure and managed services.