Japanese Banks Loaning $800M to Tata Motors for Jaguar Land Rover Acquisition

27 March 2008

Nikkei. Mizuho Corporate Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ will extend nearly US$ 400 million dollars each to Tata Motors Ltd. to help finance the Indian carmaker’s US$ 2.3 billion dollar cash purchase of the Jaguar and Land Rover units of Ford Motor Co. (Earlier post.)

Tata Motors is seeking a 3 billion dollar syndicated loan from a consortium of Indian and overseas banks. Each of the eight co-lead managers of the syndicate will lend up to nearly 400 million dollars. No Japanese bank is thought to have ever lent so much money to an Indian corporation as part of a syndicated loan.

The syndicate also includes State Bank of India—a government-owned commercial bank—as well as major US banks Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Other financial institutions are likely to join in the future.