Essar Ports has refinanced its debt in a subsidiary Essar Bulk Terminal Hazira through take out finance scheme of India infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL). The company has availed the take out finance scheme to reduce its interest rate by over two and half percent on Rs 405 crore which is part of debt taken for building its 30 million tonne capacity bulk terminal at Hazira in Gujarat
Takeout finance of the infrastructure projects by IIFCL is the government initiative wherein an infrastructure project on commissioning can replace some of its costly domestic rupee debt with finances from IIFCL. This lowers the interest burden on infrastructure projects and facilitates incremental lending to infrastructure sector by freeing up the capital of banks.
The company which has a total debt of about a billion dollars could explore further availing the benefits of such a scheme for cutting the cost of its infrastructure project, Vadinar Port Terminal, a 12 million tonne all weather deep draft facility which is located in Gujarat.
Essar Ports is one of the largest port companies of India, with a current capacity of 88 MMTPA. The capacity is being expanded to 158 MMTPA over the next few years.
