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| Edited By: G Seetharaman |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 16, 2018, 05:55 AM IST
Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) is close to tying up funds for its Rs 1,415 crore highway project between the Maharashra-Madhya Pradesh border and Dhule in Maharashtra, Praveen Sood, its chief financial officer, said.
The build-operate-transfer (BOT)-toll project is being executed by a consortium consisting of HCC, the UK-based John Laing Investment and Sadbhav Engineering. The split between the partners in the project is 37:36:27 respectively.
“We have said that we will achieve closure by December, but frankly speaking, we have got the sanctions but are just negotiating the interest rate,” Sood said. The 96.5-km project on national highway (NH)-3 has a debt-equity ratio of 70:30.
Sood said 3-4 financial institutions including banks are involved in the funding. Asked at what rates term loans are available, Sood said it’s around 11% for a 12-year loan.
He said that achieving closure for projects has become easier over the last few months. Working capital loan rates are also currently in the 10-11% range.
At the peak of the downturn, many construction companies could not achieve closure for some of their BOT projects given the economic uncertainties, tight liquidity and interest rates.
The consortium bagged the four/six-laning project in January. The project has a concession period of 18 years including the construction period of 30 months. HCC has two other BOT road projects in its kitty - a Rs 340 crore toll project at Badarpur near Delhi and an annuity project in Andhra Pradesh, which was completed earlier this year.
“The Badarpur project will be finished by December 2010,” Sood said. HCC’s order-book as on September 1 stood at around Rs 16,300 crore.
