RCom gets $1.9 bn loan from Chinese bank

NEW DELHI, INDIA: India's Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) companies, Reliance Power and Reliance Communications, will sew up about $3 billion in loans from mostly Chinese banks, officials said on Wednesday. As part of this, Reliance Communications will sign an accord with China Development Bank for a loan of $1.9 billion.

Utility Reliance Power has secured loans worth 50 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) from a consortium of three Chinese banks and Standard Chartered for the Sasan power project in central India, a company spokesman told Reuters.

The letters for the financing agreement with the Chinese banks would be exchanged on Wednesday, the spokesman said confirming media reports, as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao starts his three-day India visit.

Wen's visit is the first by a Chinese premier in five years. He is accompanied by more than 400 business leaders, underscoring the growing commercial ties of countries which, between them, house more than a third of the world's population.

The Mint newspaper earlier reported that ADAG would use part of the money to fund equipment purchases from Chinese companies for its telecom and power companies.

Reliance Communications, India's second-biggest mobile phone operator and controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, will sign an accord with China Development Bank for a $1.9 billion, 10-year loan, the company spokesman said without elaborating.

Shares in Reliance Power, which signed an $8.3-billion deal with China's Shanghai Electric Group in October for thermal power generation units, rose as much as 2.7 percent on Wednesday to 158.25 rupees in a weak Mumbai market .BSESN.

Reliance Communications was trading 2.3 per cent higher at 131 rupees.