New Delhi, May 28 (Inditop) Passenger and heavy vehicle manufacturer Tata Motors has extended the maturity deadline on a bridge finance of $1 billion raised for financing the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) deal struck in March last year by 18 months till Dec 31 2010, the company said in a statement Thursday.
“This transaction was concluded amidst challenging market conditions in the global credit market and in the automotive sector. Tata Motors thanks the lending institutions for trust reposed by them in the performance and outlook of the company,” Tata Motors chief financial officer C. Ramakrishnan.
The extension and earlier payments of $1.16 billion and $840 million respectively have completed the refinance of the $3-billion bridge loan for 12 months taken in June last year for the JLR deal.
This comes a fortnight after Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata admitted in an interview to British newspaper Sunday Times that the timing of the deal was questionable.
“Both the acquisitions were made (JLR and steelmaker Corus), I would say at an inopportune time in the sense that they were near the top of the market in terms of price,” Tata was quoted as saying.
