Tata Steel to refinance $5.4 billion offshore debt

Tata Steel Ltd said on Thursday two of its indirect units had executed agreements to refinance and term out its international debt portfolio of $5.4 billion.

The steel major said an indirect unit in the United Kingdom would refinance bank debt incurred on the company's $13 billion acquisition of Britain's Corus in 2007 through a term loan and revolving credit facilities of 3.05 billion euros ($3.89 billion).

Another indirect unit in Singapore had taken on loan facilities of $1.5 billion to repay debt and fund investment needs of the company outside India, Tata Steel said in a statement.

"The financing structure has been designed with flexible terms and better pricing that will provide financial headroom to the international business especially in Tata Steel Europe in the coming years," Chief Financial Officer Koushik Chatterjee said.

(1 US dollar = 0.7839 euro)

(Reuters)