SSI prepays Rs 703 m-worth loans

CHENNAI: India's SSI Ltd, a mid-sized software services and training firm,

said on Thursday that it had reduced its debt by prepaying all its secured

loans, totaling Rs 703 million ($14.93 million).

The firm said in a statement that it had prepaid loans worth Rs 648 million

to state-run term lender Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and Rs 55

million to financial services firm ICICI Ltd.

"The only debt we are now left carrying is about Rs 1.6 million in

unsecured loans in the form of fixed deposits we had collected from the public,

which mature in March 2002," a company spokesman told Reuters.

SSI said it did not pay any foreclosure charges on Rs 450 million of the

total prepaid amount, and is currently negotiating with IDBI to have a fee of Rs

4.33 million on the remaining sum waived. The foreclosure fee on the ICICI loan

is Rs 2.02 million, it said.

SSI shares closed provisionally up 20 per cent at Rs 165.60 on the Bombay

Stock Exchange, while its benchmark index ended up 0.52 per cent. ($1= Rs

47.10).

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.