Tata Chemicals Ltd, part of India's second-largest business group, hired seven banks to arrange US$850 million in loans to fund the purchase of US-based General Chemical Industrial Products Inc, three people with direct knowledge of the deal said.
The Mumbai-based company appointed HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered Plc, ABN Amro Holding NV, Calyon, Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Rabobank Nederland and Bank of Nova Scotia to arrange the loan, which includes US$500 million for seven years and US$350 million of short-term borrowing, said the people, who declined to be identified as the information isn't public.
Tata Chemicals, India's biggest producer of salt, in January agreed to buy General Chemical for US$1 billion to become the world's second-largest maker of soda ash. Tata Chemicals bought UK-based Brunner Mond Group in December 2005, raising its soda-ash capacity to about 3 million tonnes, accounting for 8 percent of the global market.
Calls to Prashant Ghose, chief financial officer at Tata Chemicals, were not returned.
Tata Chemicals plans to pay interest that is 1.35 percentage points more than the London interbank offered rate for the seven-year loan, said the people. Three-month Libor was set at 2.94 percent on Friday.
Shares of the company have gained 2 percent since announcing the acquisition, outpacing the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex, which fell 12 percent.
Moody's ranks the company's foreign-currency debt Baa3, the lowest investment grade.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
ACTION PLAN: Taiwan would expand procurement from the US and encourage more companies to invest in the US to deepen bilateral cooperation, Lai said The government would not impose reciprocal tariffs in retaliation against US levies, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he announced five strategies to address the issue, including pledging to increase Taiwanese companies’ investments in the US. Lai has in the past few days met with administrative and national security officials, as well as representatives from various industries, to explore countermeasures after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday last week announced a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese imports. In a video released yesterday evening, Lai said that Taiwan would not retaliate against the US with higher tariffs and Taiwanese companies’ commitments to
‘SPECIAL CHANNEL’: Taipei’s most important tasks are to stabilize industries affected by Trump’s trade tariffs and keep negotiations with Washington open, a source said National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) arrived in the US for talks with US President Donald Trump’s administration, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Wu was leading a delegation for a meeting known as the “special channel,” the Financial Times reported earlier. It marked Trump’s first use of the channel since returning to the White House on Jan. 20. Citing a source familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported that Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) was also a part of the delegation. The visit came days after China concluded war games around Taiwan and amid Trump’s
CHIP EXCEPTION: An official said that an exception for Taiwanese semiconductors would have a limited effect, as most are packaged in third nations before being sold The Executive Yuan yesterday decried US President Donald Trump’s 32 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods announced hours earlier as “unfair,” saying it would lodge a representation with Washington. The Cabinet in a statement described the pledged US tariffs, expected to take effect on Wednesday next week, as “deeply unreasonable” and “highly regrettable.” Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said that the government would “lodge a solemn representation” with the US Trade Representative and continue negotiating with Washington to “ensure the interests of our nation and industries.” Trump at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday announced a 10 percent baseline tariff on most goods