The State Bank of India (SBI) would be lending up to Rs 10,000 crore to six telecom companies that won airwaves in the just concluded 2G spectrum auction last week, which would be backed by assets of the respective companies as collateral.
The bank this time around is exercising caution after the Supreme Court scrapped 122 mobile licenses belonging to nine telecom companies in 2012 as it found fault with the process by which they had been awarded, which led to some of the companies. This led some companies exiting the sector, consequently putting at risk some Rs 4,500 crore of loans made by SBI.
Previously, lenders handed out thousands of crores to telecom at the time of 3G auction in 2010, with just licences being the collateral. However, lenders, both public and private, now are seeking pledges of shares and spectrum as collateral as they realized that if any operator were to default or permits were scrapped, they couldn't do much to recover funds as they just had the licences as security.
