Mumbai, 17 November 2014

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (“RJIL”) has signed Syndicated Term Loan Facilities aggregating to US$1.5 Billion (the “Facility”). The Facility is guaranteed by Reliance Industries Limited (“RIL”) and will be used to refinance the syndicated term loan facilities aggregating to US$1.5 Billion tied up by RJIL in 2010.

The Facility was fully underwritten by an initial group of 15 core relationship banks that comprise the Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners (“MLABs”). The deal witnessed significant oversubscription before it was launched into syndication and two banks joined in as MLAs. The overall bank group saw participation from banks all over the world, including North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and the Middle East. This term loan syndication saw a total of 26 banks participate in the Facility.

This facility is significant on various counts:

-Comprises of US$ 1 Billion Facility I, which has a total maturity of 5.5 years and the US$ 0.5 Billion Facility II, which has a total maturity of 7 years and represents the longest average maturity for an unsecured syndicated loan of similar size in Asia this year;
-Tied up at significantly better terms than the facilities being refinanced which were signed in 2010;
-Facility saw tremendous response in Syndication and raised over US$ 400 million;
-In compliance with RBI guidelines, this Facility saw participation from only International banks;
-This was one of the rare occasions when the higher tenor 7 year facility saw a strong participation in syndication: the 7 year facility saw a higher participation (in percentage terms) than the 5.5 year facility;
-Facility also saw strong participation from Middle Eastern, regional Taiwanese and Japanese banks

The 15 MLABs for the Facility were Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, Bank of America N.A., Barclays Bank PLC, BNP Paribas, Singapore Branch, The Bank of Nova Scotia Asia Limited, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., Citigroup Global Markets Singapore Pte. Ltd., Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, DBS Bank Ltd., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Singapore Branch, Mizuho Bank, Ltd., The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Standard Chartered Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Westpac Banking Corporation. The 2 MLAs which came in before syndication are National Bank of Abu Dhabi P.J.S.C. and United Overseas Bank Limited.

The banks which joined in syndication are Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Societe Generale SA, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Limited, Singapore Branch, Land Bank of Taiwan, Singapore Branch, Mega International Commercial Bank Co., Ltd., Offshore Banking Branch, Bank of Taiwan, Singapore Branch, CTBC Bank Co., Ltd. Singapore, The Iyo Bank, Ltd. and The Hyakujushi Bank, Ltd.

About Reliance Jio Infocomm

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest private sector company, is the first telecom operator to hold pan India Unified License. This license authorises RJIL to provide all telecommunication services except Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite Service.

RJIL holds spectrum in1800 MHz (across 14 circles) and 2300 MHz (across 22 circles) capable of offering fourth generation (4G) wireless services. RJIL plans to provide seamless 4G services using FDD-LTE on 1800 MHz and TDD-LTE on 2300 MHz through an integrated ecosystem.

RJIL is setting up a pan India telecom network to provide to the highly underserviced India market, reliable (4th generation) high speed internet connectivity, rich communication services and various digital services on pan India basis in key domains such as education, healthcare, security, financial services, government citizen interfaces and entertainment. RJIL aims to provide anytime, anywhere access to innovative and empowering digital content, applications and services, thereby propelling India into global leadership in digital economy.

Reliance Jio has:

-An agreement with Indus Towers for more than 113,000 towers across India (Sept 2014)
-An agreement with GTL Infra for more than 27,800 towers across India (Sept 2014)
-An agreement with Ascend Telecom for their more than 4,500 towers across India (June 2014)
-An agreement with Tower Vision for their 8,400 towers across India (May 2014)
-An agreement with ATC India for their 11,000 towers across India (April 2014)
-An agreement with Viom Networks for their 42,000 telecom towers (March 2014)
-An agreement with Bharti Infratel for their 36,000 telecom towers (March 2014)
-Agreement with Bharti Airtel for a comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing agreement to share infrastructure created by both parties to avoid duplication of infrastructure wherever possible (December 2013)
-A key agreement for international data connectivity with Bharti to utilise dedicated fiber pair of Bharti’s i2i submarine cable that connects India and Singapore (April 2013)
-Agreements with Reliance Communications Limited for sharing of RCOM’s extensive inter-city and intra-city optic fiber infrastructure of nearly 1,20,000 fiber-pair kilometers of optic fiber and 500,000 fiber pair kilometers respectively (April 2013 / April 2014), and 45,000 towers (June 2013)

From less than 700 professionals a year back, the RJIL team has grown rapidly to a national footprint of over 10,000 professionals today.