Reliance Petroleum Ltd. (RPL) has concluded India's first US$1 billion letter of credit (L/C) facility with a consortium of domestic and institutional banks. India's privately owned oil refiner will use the facility to buy crude oil imports.

Lead arrangers in the financing are ABN Amro, Bank of America, Citibank, Credit Agricole, Credit Lyonnais, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ICICI, Standard Chartered and State Bank of India. Co-arrangers are Oriental Bank of Commerce and Punjab National Bank. Senior managers are Fuji Bank, Syndicate Bank and Toronto Dominion Bank while ABN Amro and Bank of America were the joint book runners for the facility.

The documentation agent was Credit Agricole Indo Suez while eight arrangers - ABN Amro, Bank of America, Citibank, Credit Agricole, Credit Lyonnais, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and ICICI - have underwritten the whole transaction.

Reliance proves its popularity

The facility was mandated, syndicated and completed in less than one week and was oversubscribed by around 150 per cent. This latest deal shatters the record for an Asian L/C financing, previously held by Reliance when it concluded a US$550 million facility with a consortium of 17 banks in October last year.

The success of these deals confirms the credibility of Reliance in banking circles and indicates growing confidence in India's newly liberalised downstream hydrocarbons sector. More L/Cs from Reliance can be exported since the privately owned refiner is expected to consume around US$5 billion a year of crude oil imports.

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