JSW Infrastructure Arm To Avail Rs 500-Crore Loan For Tuticorin Port Development Project

JSW Infrastructure Ltd. on Wednesday said that its wholly-owned subsidiary, JSW Tuticorin Multipurpose Terminal Pvt., will avail a Rs 500-crore loan from ICICI Bank and Canara Bank for the project to develop the Tuticorin port.

JSW Tuticorin will use the loan to fund the development or mechanisation of the North Cargo Berth-III in Zone A at the VO Chidambaranar Port in Tuticorin, according to an exchange filing. The firm is undertaking the project on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis.

On completion of the project, the North Cargo Berth-III will be equipped to handle dry bulk cargo capacity of 6.96 million tonnes per annum.

The regulatory filing added JSW Infrastructure, "as a sponsor, has provided debt repayment shortfall undertaking to cover principal and interest" throughout the loan tenure.

According to the terms of the undertaking, the parent company should maintain 51% ownership—directly or indirectly—in the borrower company.

The conditions also state that the company should meet any financing shortfall in the project. And, this includes meeting any cost overrun through equity contribution or unsecured, or subordinated promoter loans.

The conditions also state that in the event of a default, the company should not withdraw any such unsecured funds brought towards meeting shortfalls in case of occurrence and subsistence.

For the July-September quarter of the current fiscal, JSW Infrastructure had posted a 40% rise in net profit to Rs 374 crore. In comparison, the ports and terminals operator had reported a net profit Rs 267 crore in the year-ago period.

The company’s revenue from operations for the quarter had grown 18% year-on-year to Rs 1,001 crore, against Rs 848 crore that it had earned in the previous fiscal’s similar period.

Shares of JSW Infrastructure Ltd. closed 0.20% higher at Rs 318 apiece on the BSE, compared to a 0.62% decline in the benchmark Sensex.